Have you ever wanted to take care of your grandparent’s health while you’re away? Well, now you can because our crew met Cardiomo team that won Startup Lithuania‘s Roadshow/Pitch Battle in Kyiv, Ukraine, few weeks ago. Cardiomo is the wearable healthcare monitoring AI-based device that allows you to track your family member’s health.

Cardiomo will attend LOGIN Startup Fair on May 24-25 where they will present their product for future users and investors. Ksenia Belkina, founder and CEO of the company, gladly answered our questions so we would learn more about their product.

Hello Ksenia! Congratulations for winning Pitch Battle in Kyiv! Please tell us, what is Cardiomo? How it works, what problems does it solve? What are your competitors and competitive advantages?

Ksenia: Cardiomo is the first non-medical and user-friendly biosensor that continuously tracks comprehensive vital signs and biometrics with the accuracy that doctors trust. Cardiomo notifies on the first signs of health problems. That is a firm step for preventing diseases and eventually saving lives. It measures ECG, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, skin temperature, posture, activity, location of a user etc. Cardiomo’s AI was elaborated to detect up to 100 diseases.

And of course, it is different from our competitors. Firstly, Cardiomo combines the functionality of a fitness tracker and a medical device. A great advantage for people who want to take care of their health in complex including disease prevention. Secondly, we strive to eliminate distances between relatives in the context of taking care of each other’s health. Cardiomo offers the solution when a user can allow others to receive data for his/her device. Either they are family members or doctors.

When exactly did you launch, what were the main challenges before launching?

Ksenia: We created the first prototype in 2015. We took the accelerator program in the US and raised the first round of investments in 2016. An intense year for Cardiomo establishment. Talking about challenges – firstly, it was important to get a connectivity between the device and a mobile app. And we did it. Then, it was needed to teach the AI about diseases detection. We took 50 thousand cardiograms from real people to implement that data in our system. And we also overcame that challenge.

How do you define your target customers?

Ksenia: We define our customers as people who are serious about their health or they already have health issues and they want a constant monitoring of their state. Basically, half of the world’s population over 35 have any form of cardiovascular diseases. Hence, Cardiomo will be of a great help to them in preventing complications.

Moreover, our potential customers are those who want to take care of the health of their loved ones and relatives. Despite distances, Cardiomo allows them to receive push-notifications from their relatives device, so that they can be responsive if anything happens.

How has business been so far? And what are your future plans?

Ksenia: We met 2017 with the participation in the world-known show CES in Las Vegas. We also got Highly Commended in the Digital Health Category of Wearable Technology Show in London this March. And now we are preparing to manufacture our first batch of 250 devices. It will be in the form of beta testing. We plan to deliver the batch in June. We have already gathered almost 1000 pre-orders from around the world and private clinics. That’s why we’ll be collecting the feedback from testing for improving functionality and starting the preparation for a serial manufacturing. It’s gonna be 2000 devices in October this year.

We also plan to create Cardiomo Pro version which will be a fully medical device for clinics and insurance companies. To that end, we will launch applications for FDA and CE certification.

What were the main challenges while working on this product and how are you overcoming them?

Ksenia: Probably, the main challenge now is to test the device with as many users as possible. As well as test it through medical institutions. We strive to reach a high accuracy for disease detection and prevention.

We intend to make Cardiomo use-friendly as well. That aim also requires honest feedback from first users, so that health recommendations we provide to users are sent properly and in an accessible way.

How are you funded? Do you seek extra funding?

Ksenia: We are currently looking for the second round of investments, right after the first batch is produced. What we’ve estimated, we need $1 million funding to expand our research and production facilities as well as the team.

Please introduce your founders, your core team and your broader team?

Ksenia: Roman Belkin, the CTO and co-founder, has a 16-year-old experience in hardware making and project management. Remembering that Cardiomo consists of two components (the patch itself and the mobile application), the idea of controlling somebody’s health was quickly transformed into a working solution – Cardiomo device.

Ksenia Belkina, the CEO and co-founder, has a deep experience in management, marketing and PR. At the moment, she is a business trip to the US provided as a grant by the American government to find new partners and connections in the country.

Of course, there are experienced hardware and software developers in the team to make Cardiomo technically possible. Marketing manager has a 3-year experience in communications and journalism. And we are in the process of hiring a sales manager in the US and sales group in Europe. Furthermore, prominent Ukrainian cardiologists consulted and continue to advise on polishing the accuracy of medical data of Cardiomo.

What do you expect at LOGIN Startup Fair?

Ksenia: We really want to raise awareness about our invention in more locations, in particular in Lithuania as well as Baltic states and the EU. We hope to find a distribution channel in Lithuania through LOGIN Startup Fair event and bring this great technology of preventing diseases to your country.

Thanks for your anwsers, Ksenia! See you soon at LOGIN Startup Fair!