A Houston-based health tech startup has raised $1.3 million in seed funding ahead of its planned app launch in 2023.
Erik Korem, the founder and CEO of Aim7, confirmed to the Houston Business Journal that the raise went through in early November 2022. Prior to that, the company had been operating on a $600,000 pre-seed raise, Korem said.
The raise was led by angel investors, including Brent Smolik, former CEO of Noble Midstream Partners, former president and COO of Noble Energy Corp. and a current Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE: MRO) board member; former Cleveland Browns coach Freddie Kitchens; and Houston influencers Ted and Dede Raad. Pre-seed investors included Rick Smith, former general manager of the Houston Texans, and former Olympian Veronica Campbell-Brown, according to Korem.
Aim7 provides personalized recommendations for physical and mental health best practices based off user surveys and data from wearables. Korem said the company already has working integration with the Apple Watch.
“The next breakthrough is how we can use this data to create recommendations to help mitigate the effects of the most common lifestyle diseases Americans face, like cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity,” Korem said.
Korem, a sports scientist who formerly worked on athlete performance for Florida State University’s football team, said the software’s recommendations would be provided by his personally recruited network of professional physical and mental health practitioners, after the app constructs a user profile based on data it collects.
The Aim7 idea came from Korem’s realization that data without insight, such as that provided by Apple or Garmin watches, does not help consumers. His team used artificial intelligence to help those recommendations after a seven-day period for the Aim7 software to register the consumer’s habits.
“We can provide you with the precise type, intensity and duration that your body is ready to adapt to each day,” Korem said. “For the mind, we have customers fill out a quick survey every morning, and combined with wearable data, we can provide a snapshot of how much physical and mental stress the body can adapt to every day.”
Korem said that following the $1.3 million raise, the company plans to have the app available on the marketplace in mid-2023, though the exact time currently is unclear. Signups for beta tests are available on the company's website, and Korem anticipated the first testing cohort will begin in mid-December.
“We’re planning to keep the app in beta until probably May 2023,” Korem said.
