Back in 2006. when Steven LeBoeuf, Ph.D, and his three co-founders started Valencell, which makes biometric sensor technology widely in demand now, it was “A leap of faith” then.
Since those early days of building new technologies from scratch, Valencellhas raised $24 million in venture capital and its third consecutive year of triple digit growth.
It is in one of the hottest tech areas right now, wearables and fitness and health apps.
It saw a 360 percent increase in companies that acquired Valencell technology over the last year, driven by sales of its wrist and ear systems and its “hearables” for fitness and healthcare applications.
Valencell’s PerformTek technology is inside many popular consumer electronics brands, including Bose, Sony, LG, Intel/SMS Audio, Jabra, and Scosche, among numerous others.
Sleeping in the office
It has been independently validated by numerous research institutions, including Duke University, NC State University, and the American College of Sports Medicine.
LeBoeuf, however, still remembers lying on a mattress in the company space at the beginning, because he had no job and no income and could afford neither a bed nor a room. Staring at the ceiling, he asked himself, “What am I doing?”
He quickly reasserted his confidence, though, reminding himself that he and his partners did see an opportunity. Prior to co-founding Valencell, LeBoeuf led the optoelectronic biosensor program at GE Global Research, where he managed the development of biosensor systems and developed cutting-edge nanosensor technology. So he realized that sensors could provide a lot of information about an individual.
The problem then was that getting at the information was a lot harder and the opportunity was to make that easier.
The company focuses on wearable biometrics. It has developed novel optical and motion sensing PerformTek technology that monitors a user’s body to remove environmental noise, resulting in very accurate readings of blood pressure, heart rate and other metrics.
Outpacing world market
Valencell itself makes no consumer products. “We make the tech that goes inside,” LeBoeuf says.
There are 17 Valencell-powered products currently in the market, with a strong pipeline of additional products scheduled to launch in 2017. Its tech currently powers more biometric hearables and wearables for the arm, wrist and ear than any other company.
Additionally, the company announced that it has seen a 35 percent growth in granted patents in 2016, with 10 new patents added this year. Valencell has a highly-cited patent portfolio in optical biometric sensor technology in the wearables and hearables industry, which now includes 39 patents granted and more than 90 additional patents pending.
Valencell’s growth has outpaced the worldwide wearables market, which recently recorded its tenth consecutive quarter of steady growth. According to IDC, vendors shipped a total of 22.5 million wearables in the second quarter of 2016 alone – a 26.1 percent increase from the same quarter last year.
Now hear this
LeBoeuf says there is also a real surge in interest in the “hearables” market.
“This year we saw the market for hearable devices take off, particularly in the sports and fitness market, where consumers are frustrated with the user experience and accuracy of low-performance wrist-worn devices and looking for high-performance wearables and hearables in form factors that better fit their lifestyles,” he said.
“The marketplace has discovered how combining Valencell’s accurate sensor technology with compelling audio experiences can drive consumer interest and engagement. Consumers use audio earbuds during exercise far more often than wrist-worn fitness trackers.”
He added, “We have been a bit surprised that most of the market pull for mobile health wearables is coming from companies interested in ear-worn product.
“Because the ear location can be employed to measure more biometrics more accurately than for the wrist location, most of Valencell’s medical collaborations have focused on small earpieces that can be worn 24/7.”
