OMsignal Receives $1 Million to Build a Smart 'Bio-Sensing' Shirt

Up until yesterday, OMsignal was in "stealth mode." With the dream of bringing personal wellness to consumers, healthcare professionals and other individuals, the company quietly spent its time building one of the world's first bio-sensing shirts. "It's sort of a new category in the exploding wearable computing world," Stephane Marceau, co-founder and CEO of OMsignal, told Benzinga. "Our first product is a shirt. We plan to have a bra as well, which captures the core biometrics from your body. It captures your ECG -- not to be confused with just basic pulse, but actual ECG. It captures your breathing patterns; your respiratory rate and breathing volume. There's an accelerometer in the system as well that tracks movement." Marceau co-founded OMsignal with Frederic Chanay, who serves as the company's Chief Product Officer. The two men got the idea for OMsignal after producing a prototype bracelet for a "very large U.S. communications provider." That firm (which Marceau would not refer to by name) ultimately rejected the prototype, but the idea of mobile and personal health stayed with Marceau and Chanay. "At the time there was only a Fitbit in the wearable category, so it was pretty novel stuff," said Marceau. "The client didn't think this was ready for primetime. There wasn't much demand at the time, but we thought this had a lot of potential. We kept close to the world of mobile health and have been thinking about it since then." During its seed round, OMsignal received $1 million from Real Ventures, Golden Venture Partners and David Cohen (the CEO of TechStars). "We bootstrapped before that for a few hundred thousand," said Marceau. "This money is to extend our trial, first and foremost. We're giving away 100 shirts and asking people what they'd like to do with the shirts." Marceau hopes that the investment will allow the technology to get "closer to scale" for mass-production. But he has yet to finalize the retail price. "We're not declaring a price here because we need to do our homework, but we think there will be different price points for different verticals," he said. "What we're doing is lining up a construction spec of design in the supply chain to get a bill of materials to scale to the consumer market at a price point that is very well comparable to other widespread wearable [items]." OMsignal hopes to have a commercial product available by the end of the year. "Probably late Q4," said Marceau. Like most wearable computer technology, OMsignal's undergarments (there's one for summer and another one for winter) interact with the wearer's iPhone. This could open up a world of possibilities for third-party apps. "Not only [will we] allow it, we will actively encourage it," said Marceau. "I stayed up till 2:00 a.m. [Wednesday night] looking at all the different people applying and the ideas they have in mind to do with our shirt." Marceau gave a hypothetical example where someone might want to connect the shirt through the iPhone to a lamp and have it change color depending on the user's mood. If someone wants to do that, they can -- and it's just the tip of the iceberg. Ideas could come from anywhere. Marceau said that his friend likes to joke that whenever he works out and his heart rate goes above 200, the shirt should automatically purchase life insurance for his wife. Whether OMsignal sells the shirt independently or through a partner, the company is determined to build a platform for others to utilize. "We want to work with partners," said Marceau. "One of the reasons we have launched is to start enable these collaborations. "We already have doctors wearing it while they do surgery, for instance, to monitor stress. Our stuff works. We've got 35-plus people wearing it day in and day out." Louis Bedigian is the Senior Tech Analyst and Features Writer of Benzinga. You can reach him at 248-636-1322 or louis(at)benzingapro(dot)com. Follow him @LouisBedigianBZ