Airo Health
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Airo Health was a health-tech startup developing the AIRO wearable armband, which claimed to automatically track nutrition, stress, exercise, and sleep. Its flagship technology was a spectrometer that shone LEDs onto the wearer's veins to detect nutritional metabolites in the blood, alongside heart-rate variability for stress and heart rate for exertion. Founded in Waterloo, Canada in 2013 by University of Waterloo engineers Abhilash Jayakumar, Naman Kumar, and Emmanuel DeVries, it went through Y Combinator's Summer 2016 batch.
02 / Airo Health FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Airo Health failed because its core technology could not be proven to work: industry experts publicly challenged the unproven spectrometer claims while the company was selling $159 preorders with no working prototype or app, forcing it to cancel preorders and refund all backers in November 2013 for lack of proof the product would work as advertised. After a Y Combinator pivot in 2016 to a $200 calorie-tracking wearable based on pulse wave-form, the company ran out of steam and was marked out of business in March 2018.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded
Airo Health is founded in early 2013 in Waterloo, Canada, by three University of Waterloo engineering graduates, with backing from a Velocity grant.
- Preorder launch and press backlash
The company launches $159 preorders for the AIRO wristband without a working prototype or app; industry press challenges the claim that a wristband spectrometer can passively detect nutritional intake from the blood.
- Preorders cancelled
In November 2013, founder Abhilash Jayakumar emails backers that the company lacks proof the product will work as advertised, cancels all preorders, and issues full refunds, citing the need for extensive further testing and calibration.
- YC pivot
Airo Health enters Y Combinator's Summer 2016 batch, pivoting to a $200 calorie-tracking wearable that measures the wave-form of the wearer's pulse to estimate calorie consumption, and partners with the US military.
- Out of business
On March 1, 2018, Airo Health is marked out of business in PitchBook's records.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
In November 2013, Airo Health cancelled all AIRO preorders and issued full refunds, conceding it lacked proof the spectrometer-based device would work as advertised and required extensive further testing.
- 02
The company pivoted to a calorie-tracking wearable during Y Combinator's Summer 2016 batch, but never reached market; PitchBook marks it out of business on March 1, 2018.