This series showcases the local ventures and technologies that aims to evolve the sports industry in Australia and abroad. It gets the founders, owners and CEO’s to tell us a little about their story and their hopes for success in the sports tech field.
In this profile we spoke to BioConnected.
Please give us your background on how your company was conceived.
“Measuring heart rate is a vital tool for health and fitness assessment. To date, the best way to do this is via 
a chest strap. However, these are compressive, uncomfortable and slightly invasive as you need to place it on the skin below the pectorals muscle group. A wave of wearables have come onto the market that promise to solve this issue of needing a chest strap to measure heart rate. However, these devices are proving inaccurate and ineffective during exercise. This is the current space of wearables. Frustrated by the current device limitations BioConnected was created. Our mission is to improve the health and fitness of all our clients by providing them with accurate, validated and meaningful data. We are happy to state that we measure, accurately, heart rate and movement under all exercise intensities with our bio-sensing earphones.”
Can you give your best elevator pitch?
“BioConnected manufacture state-of-the-art bio-sensing earphones and develop the software to power this technology. Put simply, BioConnected HR+ earphones provide the most accurate measurements of heart rate and movement, whilst you exercise, of any wearable on the market and with real time audio bio-feedback of all your workout metrics. Put simply, it replaces the need to train with any other equipment; it’s your AI trainer in your ears coaching you to improved fitness and performance. BioConnected connects you with your body whilst you exercise. You will never train again without a set of wireless BioConnected smart HR+ earphones.”
Briefly describe your product.
“BioConnected HR+ earphones are embedded with a miniaturised optical-mechanical sensor that measures subtle changes in blood flow allowing for the measurement of heart rate. Our heart rate measurements have been validated against ECG, with accurate measurements even under extreme movement and training regimes. The earphones remove the need for chest strap. In addition, BioConnected bio-sensing earphone also provide measurements of distance, speed/pace and calories burned stride rate/cadence and steps. Therefore, BioConnected HR+ also removes the need for an activity tracker, foot pod and GPS watch. It’s designed to reduce the clutter; users can now get all the vital information from one device. In addition to all the biometrics measured, the smart earphones are designed to be your coach by providing the user with real-time voice feedback about their exercise session. BioConnected HR+ will speak to you whilst you are training and tell you if you are faster and slower than your previous session in real-time – if you are slower, it will tell you by how many meters and give you motivation comments to speed up. It’s like having a personal trainer in your ear.”
What problems does your product tackle and the solutions that you are trying to solve?
“The ability to accurately measure your heart rate without a chest strap is something that has not been available to the mass market. This is despite numerous attempts from wrist based wearables to include heart rate measurements in an unsuccessful attempt to be considered a real fitness product. In contrast to the wrist, the ear is the best spot in the body to measure heart rate using photoplethysmography (PPG – the optical measurement of heart rate). BioConnected accurately measures heart rate via an optical mechanical sensor embedded into a set of earphones. We provide and measure more real-time exercise data than any other wearable and with a level of accuracy you can finally trust. In addition, our bio sensing earphones are an all in one training device replacing the need for a whole bunch of additional equipment. People everywhere are already using earphones whilst exercising – now they no longer require the additional GPS watch, activity tracker, foot pod, chest strap or coach providing them feedback; BioConnected earphones are your ultimate training partner to help improve your health, fitness and performance.”
Have you identified a customer or target market?
“Nearly three out of four frequent exercisers wear an audio headset to listen to music while working out. Biometric earphones are the perfect form factor to measure and track users exercise activity. In addition, nine out of ten people who exercise regularly currently track their progress and performance against personal goals and many are regularly looking for convenient, motivational ways to track and measure their progress. Our target market is the health and fitness community, with initial adopters being those that work out at least once per week. For example, 76% of people who exercise regularly are interested in purchasing an earbud that measures biometrics during exercise.
“BioConnected is in a new IOT wearables space that has been named ‘Hearables.’ The Hearables space alone is forecast to be worth around ~$7US billion by 2022. BioConnected timing to market in December 2016 appears to be a perfect time to enter the market in this growth phase of ‘hearable.’ There is an enormous target market just waiting for BioConnected earphones. BioConnected will start pre-sales of their HR+ Bio sensing earphones in September 2016.”
How do you intend to scale your business globally?
“We will launch in Australia in December 2016. We will use Australia as a base and to test the market before expanding globally mid-way through 2017. The goal is to validate our go to market strategies in Australia and then use this to bring on an investor to help us accelerate our global expansion. We have distributors lined up around the world to take BioConnected earphones global.”
Looking into the future, what do you foresee for your company five years from now?
“BioConnected is a combination of FitBit x Bang and Olufsen x GE Healthcare x IMB. We are in a unique space in the wearables market; a new space called ‘Hearables.’ In 5 years’ time, we see BioConnected being a major international player with significant market share of technology that connects you better to your body. Our initial product is focus more on the consumer fitness space. In 5 years’ time BioConnected will be more focused on the consumer medical monitoring space with a range of products to measure and track your health.”
With thanks to the Sydney Sports Incubator. The SSI is a NSW Government sponsored program whose primary partners are Sydney Olympic Park Authority (SOPA), NSW Institute of Sport (NSWIS), SportsCamps Australia (SCA) and Lakeba, the technology partner. The SSI reviews and supports sports themed innovation (in software, hardware, nutritional and medical applications) that may have a direct and positive impact within the sports community as a whole from grassroots through to the elite.
The post SBI’s domestic startups: BioConnected manufacture state-of-the-art bio-sensing earphones to accurately measure heart rate and movement appeared first on Sports Business Insider.