FeetMe raises $2.3m for shoe insole fitness-tracking technology
French start-up FeetMe has raised €1.9m ($2.28m) to develop smart, connected shoe insoles that gather data through sensors for analysis of a user's walking and running gait. The data, sent to an app via Bluetooth, also can be used by physicians to assess treatment efficacy, detect early warning signs of conditions such as multiple sclerosis and help design orthotics. For consumers, the company offers the FeetMe Sport platform, which analyses runners' metrics, such as stride power, for use by an artificial intelligence-powered virtual fitness coach.

Paris-based FeetMe, which is creating smart, connected insoles, raised $2.28 million (1.95 million euro) in seed funding. The round was led by Kurma Diagnostics. Other investments came from the Paris Saclay seed fund, Idinvest Partners, Seventure, and SOSV.

“This seed round will help us pursue the development of our product to target therapeutics areas in collaboration with market players,” Alexis Mathieu, founder and CEO of FeetMe, said in a statement. “The connected insole allows patient and physician to manage and evaluate, in realtime and remotely, treatments’ efficacy to adapt them more precisely and without constraints for the patient. Creating new digital biomarkers will reinforce existing therapeutics with a companion diagnostic and monitoring solution.”

FeetMe’s insoles contain pressure sensors and motion sensors. They communicate via Bluetooth with an app, and the companion software includes algorithms that can use that data to analyze patients’ walking and running gait.

The company deploys the insoles in both the clinical sphere and the consumer space. For clinicians, FeetMe’s smart insoles can be used to detect early warning signs of Parkinson’s or multiple sclerosis, to assess a patient’s recovery from orthopedic surgery, to collect data to aid in the design of orthotics, or to monitor for diabetic foot ulcers.

In all these clinical cases, the advantage of a sensor is that it provides quantitiative, comparable data, whereas the status for gait analysis is highly subjective and observation-based.

In the consumer sphere, FeetMe offers FeetMe Sport, which uses the sensors to analyze runners’ metrics like stride power and running pace, and feeds that data to an AI-powered computerized running coach. It also integrates with consumer apps including Strava and Runkeeper.

FeetMe Sport can be purchased on the company’s website for $175.54 (149.99 euro). The clinical product has CE Mark clearance, but is not currently cleared with the FDA.