Kinsa, a New York City–based maker of an FDA-cleared smart thermometer has won $9.6 million in Series A financing, which includes funding from Kleiner Perkins and others.
The company’s thermometer can plug into a smartphone via the headphone jack. The smartphone provides the horsepower, including the display, power, and processing capabilities needed to both capture an accurate reading and keep track of the data. By logging data, the device can help parents and doctors keep track of when their child began having a fever, how long they were sick, and so forth. Individual profiles can be created for different members of the household.
One of the factors driving the funding is new software from the firm, known as Fluency, which enables it to track the outbreaks of illnesses across communities. The company plans to give a number of the devices to select schools for free, which it says will help better track outbreaks of colds and flus, while also helping differentiate the common cold between, say, strep throat.
The app associated with the device, offered for free, also enables users to input pictures and various other data.
“We’ve reimagined the world’s most common medical device, the thermometer, and given it the potential to improve the health of entire communities,” said the CEO CEO of the company, Inder Singh, in an interview with VentureBeat. “This is the first part of our bigger mission to create the first real-time map of human health using mobile technologies to track — and stop — the spread of illness.”
Designed with kids in mind, an app shows entertaining animations designed to sooth children as they have their temperature taken. The procedure lasts about 10 seconds from start to finish.
The device has a relatively low price point of $30.
The company says it will use the infusion of cash to help it boost production levels and expand its marketing efforts.
