Tag: siren

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Siren raises $11.8M for its limb-saving smart socks

Can a pair of socks help those with diabetes avoid foot amputations?

That’s one of the ideas behind Siren, a company that’s building smart, washable fabric wearables – the first of which is a pair of socks meant to help those with diabetes monitor their foot health and detect dangerous injuries early. They’ve just a raised $11.8M Series B to help get it done.

The round was led by Anathem Ventures, and backed by Khosla, DCM, and Founders Fund. As part of the raise, DCM’s Jason Krikorian (co-founder of Slingbox maker Sling Media) will be joining Siren’s board.

Siren co-founder Ran Ma tells me that amputations in patients with diabetes are largely the result of injuries that go undetected for too long. Over time, diabetes can cause nerve damage; when this nerve damage impacts the feet, patients can develop injuries and ulcers without noticing – out of sight, out of mind. Left untreated, these injuries can grow worse or become infected to the point that amputation is required. Tens of thousands of these amputations occur each year in the US alone.

Siren’s socks help detect injuries that might otherwise go unnoticed by monitoring the temperature of six regions of the wearer’s foot. If one region seems to be getting considerably warmer than those around it, it could indicate ongoing inflammation caused by an injury. The socks can connect to the patient’s phone via Bluetooth to help them keep an eye on their feet – and, importantly, that information is beamed to their doctors who can keep an eye out for red flags.

That last bit is particularly key right now. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many are avoiding doctors offices and hospitals in fear of being exposed to the virus; meanwhile, many offices have been limiting their more routine/less urgent or “non-essential” appointments – including, in this case, routine foot exams. Siren’s socks let a patient’s doctors monitor their foot health from afar.

We first met Siren back in 2017 when the company won the TechCrunch Hardware Battlefield at CES. Since then, the company has raised around $22 million in funding; this $11.8M Series B, a previously undisclosed $6.5M Series A in 2018, and a $3.4M seed round.

Ran tells me that they’ve made Siren Socks available in ten states so far, with plans to expand nationwide by the end of this year.

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Siren raises $3.4 million for smart socks that track diabetic health

Siren, a startup that has developed fabric with embedded microsensors, has unveiled its product, a sock for people with diabetes. Siren also announced a $3.4 million investment from DCM, Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund.

Powered by its Neurofabric technology, the diabetic sock can monitor foot temperatures with the idea that those with diabetes will be able to detect potential foot injuries.

“What we do is we take proven technology and we put it inside of socks so people can use it easily,” Siren co-founder and CEO Ran Ma told me. “If you get injured and have diabetic nerve damage, it’s hard to feel pain. The pain can go unnoticed, become infected, turn into an ulcer and lead to an amputation.”

Each sock is fitted with six sensors, so 12 sensors for every pair of socks. They’re also machine-washable and don’t need to be charged.

Siren sells for $19.95 a month, which gets people an initial pack of five pairs of socks, access to fresh socks every six months and access to the Siren Hub for monitoring.

Since its conception, Siren has had a few versions of its socks. Over the years, Siren has fine-tuned its development process to more seamlessly integrate the technology into the socks. Last January, Siren Care won TechCrunch’s Hardware Battlefield at the Consumer Electronics Show.

The plan is to create additional products in the health space with this technology.

“It’s very easily scalable,” Ma said. “It’s the same process. You just switch out the component. We already know sensors and electronics are getting cheaper and smaller every single day. So we just take advantage of this trend. Most of this stuff is made for wearables but we’re hijacking it and putting it in your clothes. And we think that’s the best use case.”