ViiT Health – Healthcare
What it is:
ViiT Health offers a health monitoring device called the Gluco 1.0 for detecting and monitoring glucose levels in the blood. The new non-invasive glucometer uses Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIR) and applies computer vision to identify glucose information from the interaction of Near-Infrared Light passing through the finger. The device also uses deep learning and a recommendation engine to enable healthcare professionals to detect the full glucose footprint in blood and tissue.
Who Made It?
ViiT Health was founded in 2021 by Luis Gomez. Gomez is a corporate lawyer and a computer vision entrepreneur. He was educated at Harvard and held top corporate management positions at Citibank Mexico, AT&T, Chrysler, and Walmart, among others.
Funding status:
The company has only raised money via crowdfunding. There is a current campaign via WeFunder and it has raised over $420K from 236 investors: https://wefunder.com/viit.health.
Additionally, the company claims in their crowdfunding page that they have raised more than $2M for R&D by leading private and public investors.
Why we like it:
- No specific reagents are required for measurement, so repetitive analysis is possible at a low cost
- It is estimated that 578M people in the world will have diabetes by 2030, rising to almost 700M by 2045 (according to ViiT Health). Technologies and solutions for diabetes are crucial in the next decade or so.
- In their crowdfunding messaging, they claim that the product is currently undergoing validation with Mexico’s most advanced research & healthcare organizations
- The company claims to have strategic alliances with Iasotek, Arrowhead Center, and Mexico City Innovation and Technology Agency.
Did you know?
According to ViiT Health, as of 2020, there were 34M adults in the U.S. with diabetes. There are 80M prediabetics in the United States – it is estimated that 1 in 3 adults has prediabetes.
The cost for diabetes diagnosis in the U.S. was close to $245Bn in 2012 and has been rising yearly on account of new cases. If more accessible diagnostic devices were to be implemented, like the one from ViiT Health, the cost could decrease drastically.