Nabyl Bennouri, an active and healthy electrical engineer raised in Morocco, fainted and nobody knew why.
After several tests and visits to his physician, the verdict was in: He suffered from a vitamin D deficiency.
It was from that episode that Bennouri and Nattapon Chaimanonart came up with an idea. They would use their expertise in engineering to create wearable devices that can monitor things like vitamin D deficiency so people don’t have to end up in the doctor’s office with a medical mystery.
The company’s debut product, the Violet, does just that. It tracks the wearers sun exposure to monitor vitamin D production.
CEO Chaimanonart said the company’s goal is to capitalize on the burgeoning wearable technology market with gadgets that can actually help people.
Though its next products are still in the development stages, Chaimanonart is thinking of things like devices that can detect pollen allergies or gases that react to the body.
“We want to create a community that makes people healthy and helps them,” he said.
The product: Ultra Inc. develops wearable devices that monitor your environmental conditions and analyze their impact on your health. Its first product is called Violet, a wearable device that tracks sun exposure and its impact on your body’s vitamin D production. Violet tracks user’s real-time UV exposure, alerts users when they get close to the risk of sunburn and calculates user’s daily sun-generated vitamin D. The device connects to your phone so you can track multiple people at once.
How it makes money: Ultra sells devices directly to consumers. Chaimanonart said the retail price is still being refined, but will likely end up between $100 and $130. The company hopes to also license its technology to other makers of wearable devices.
Size of the market: Ultra says wearable sensors are at the intersection of three growing markets — the Internet of things market, the quantified self market and mobile health.
Competition: Violet is the first of its kind for measuring UV exposure and its impact on vitamin D production.
Competitive advantage: Violet has unique features supported by Ultra’s proprietary algorithm, including real-time calculation of accumulated UV dosage, prediction of safe sun exposure time and multi-user management. Ultra also said Violet is the only device on the market that measures a user’s vitamin D production.
Managers and their background: Founder and CEO Nattapon Chaimanonart has more than 12 years research and industry experience in integrated circuit design specifically for low-power electronics. Co-founder and CTO Nabyl Bennouri is an experienced electrical engineer specializing in sensor technology who has been developing mobile applications on iPhone and Android platforms for the past decade.
Advisers: Board member and adviser Jon Maroney runs Amplify United, a tech company accelerator in Portland. Sr. adviser Peter Galen is a veteran entrepreneur with more than 30 years experience. Medical adviser Andrew Blauvelt is a renowned dermatologist and the president of the Oregon Medical Research Center. Technical adviser Mark Leavitt is a hybrid electronic engineer/physician/entrepreneur.
Investors: Ultra’s initial capital has come from the founders and investors associated with Amplify United.
Capital raised: Approximately $75,000
Capital sought: Ultra plans to raise up to $500,000 to launch the Violet and its next product currently in development. The company is currently running a Kickstarter campaign that expires on Aug. 20 to raise $100,000.
Ideal exit: Ultra said its goal is to build a big, strong health-focused tech company here in Portland.