Breaking down the silos of wearables Vital checks stats with $2.9 million

I’m going to guess that the Apple Watch, the Fitbit, the Garmin, or any number of other wearable health monitoring devices are within your reach right now.

Let’s admit it: we all like to see some progress in our health, and, between you and me, if and when something eventually does go wrong, I’m more than happy to have a treasure trove of data for medical professionals to pour through while I’m bleeding out in the A&E.

While the emergency room visit is (knock on wood) a twice, maybe thrice lifetime occurrence, for most of us just want to keep on top of our health is more than enough. And wearable devices do a great job of that.

Until … ever tried to sync FitBit data over to Apple Health? It took me months to find Power Sync. Likewise, my cycling routines are routed via Fitbit and then shifted over to Apple Health on a daily basis. Oh, and then I think(?) I’ve also got Google collecting health stats about me. To be honest, the process is so convoluted I barely understand it.

Where Vital, and the subsequent $2.9 million they’ve just raised, comes into the picture is by eliminating the barriers and silos digital health startups face when seeking to collect and analyse data, you know, doing what they’ve set out to do in the first place. And with the added benefit of what Vital’s cooking up, their API will allow and all (users thereof) the ability to talk to each other. 

What’s more, Vital’s API isn’t limited solely to devices, as it also extends to test-at-home lab kits, a trend that the pandemic only accelerated, and one that scientists are starting to reap the rewards beyond just a COVIC test.

This interoperability may not be something that means a big deal to you right now, but if one device is detecting something something, and another something something else, and a lab at home test flags some abnormalities, well, then it will be a big deal.

Vital’s $2.9 million seed round was led by Point Nine, and saw participation from 20VC, Amino Collective, Adventure Fund and Inflect Health. Additionally, a number of notable angel investors including Johannes Schildt (CEO - Kry), Kristian Ranta (CEO - Meru Health), James Beshara (Ex-Airbnb, Magic mind), Jesse Dhillon (Plaid), Michael Malis (CTO - Freshpaint.io) and Elliot Rappaport (Elemy Health) have thrown their support behind the startup.