Withings
Founded: 2009
Tracks: Weight, blood pressure
If you know Twitter users who regularly tweet their weight, chances are they're using Withings. The Paris-based company sells a Wi-Fi equipped scale that records your weight and body mass and sends that info to your smartphone or Web browser. For the brave souls who opt in, the scale automatically tweets out their weight.
Cédric Hutchings and Eric Carrel founded the company in 2009 to delve into technologies that make it simpler to track your own personal health behavior.
"It's one of the key revolutions of the digital age," Hutchings says. "We're just at the beginning of the new ways we can manage and be provided with health services."
Withings now sells its scales in 40 countries around the world, and Apple keeps them in stock on its store shelves.
A recent funding round from Europe-based venture capital firm Ventech helped the crew roll out its next product: A blood pressure monitor powered by iOS devices.
Hutchings says it's a good time to be working on these sorts of e-health devices: "It's coming to the mass market," he says, pointing to retail support for major players like Best Buy and Apple.
