Startup Street: India’s Fitbit Challenger Launches Devices With Heart, Glucose Trackers

This week on Startup Street, take a look at the three new devices launched by Ratan Tata-backed fitness startup GOQii. Essential Products, a startup by Android creator Andy Rubin, bought a dead Indian-origin email venture. And how Quora, one of the most-used interactive platforms, revealed a data breach. Here's what went on:

GOQii Launches Three New Products

Fitness technology startup GOQii added cardiography and diabetes-tracking to its fresh line of products.

The startup, founded by Indian entrepreneur Vishal Gondal, announced three products: GoQii VitalECG, GoQii VitalGluco and GOQii Run GPS.

The first device is capable of giving a single ECG reading within 30 seconds and can connect to a preventive cardiologist for consultation if required. It can also measure blood pressure and sleep quality. Apple Inc. also incorporated ECG on its latest flagship Watch Series 4.

The power of technology! We are proud to launch the GOQii VitalECG! #ReimagineHealth #BeTheForce pic.twitter.com/Hri03i35RA

December 6, 2018

The second device will have a glucometer with strips that can be used to prick a finger and test blood sugar. The device plugs into the 3.5 mm audio jack of a smartphone and gives readings on an app. The third product is a slightly advanced activity tracker with a focus on marathoners.

Introducing the GOQii VitalGluco! The future of smart healthcare is here! #ReimagineHealth #InternetOfHealth #BeTheForce @vishalgondal pic.twitter.com/jiz7PF8fMp

December 6, 2018

Pricing

• VitalECG: Rs 4,999
• VitalGluco: Rs 2,999
• RunGPS: Rs 4,999

All three devices will be available from the first quarter of 2019.

The startup also announced new features for its system. It will now give a health score to every user which will enable them to get discounted insurance premium rates and customised plans from its partner Max Bupa.

Gondal had founded GOQii in 2014. It sells wearables but then uses a subscription-based model after that for users to connect with fitness coaches and get a personalised regimen. That played a differentiator for GOQii.

The startup has raised over $40 million in seven funding rounds, attracting marquee names, including Ratan Tata, Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Edelweiss Financial Services and, most recently, Japan's Mitsui & Co.

Android Creator Buys Indian-Origin Startup

Andy Rubin's startup Essential Products acquired CloudMagic, a California-based startup known for its flagship email app Newton Mail, a spokesperson for Essential Products confirmed to BloombergQuint without mentioning the terms of the deal.

“We are always on the lookout for companies with great technology and talent to help accelerate our product roadmap,” the spokesperson said.

CloudMagic was started by Rohit Nadhani in 2013 as a free email service. It was incubated in Bengaluru-based Webyog, another startup by Nadhani which he sold earlier this year.

In 2016, CloudMagic was rebranded Newton Mail, a premium, subscription-based app which garnered 40,000 paid users.

The Newton app was shut down on Sept. 25 as the startup “couldn't successfully figure out profitability and growth over the long term”, according to blog post written by Nadhani on Medium. “It was hard; the market for premium consumer mail apps is not big enough, and it faces stiff competition from high quality free apps from Google, Microsoft, and Apple,” Nadhani wrote. “We put up a hard and honest fight, but it wasn't enough to overcome the bundling and platform default advantages enjoyed by the large tech companies.”

Two months ago, Rubin's Essential announced a 30 percent reduction in its workforce as the startup looked to change its future trajectory after having to cancel the development of its second smartphone, Bloomberg reported. It's now pinning its future on a different phone with a small screen that will try to mimic the user and automatically respond to messages on their behalf.

Quora Reveals Data Breach

U.S.-based question-and-answer platform Quora said it discovered a data breach that affected about 100 million users.

“On Friday we discovered that some user data was compromised by a third party who gained unauthorised access to one of our systems,” it said in a blog post. “We're still investigating the precise causes and in addition to the work being conducted by our internal security teams, we have retained a leading digital forensics and security firm to assist us. We have also notified law enforcement officials.”

The information compromised includes account information like name, email address, passwords and non-public content like requests, messages and downvotes.

The startup apologised for the breach and said it's notifying users who may have been impacted and working on security improvements. “It's our responsibility to make sure things like this don't happen, and we failed to meet that responsibility. We recognize that in order to maintain user trust, we need to work very hard to make sure this does not happen again.”

Founded by former Facebook employees Adam D'Angelo and Charlie Cheever in 2009, Quora has since become an extremely popular platform establishing a niche for itself. As of April 2017, it claimed to have over 190 million monthly unique users.

It raised over $200 million from investors which include names like Y Combinator's Sam Altman, Peter Thiel's Founder Fund, Tiger Global Management, Matrix Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners. The most recent funding round was in April 2017, according to the business intelligence platform Crunchbase.

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