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In-ear fertility wearable now shipping

Regina Pazvakavambwa
By Regina Pazvakavambwa, ITWeb portals journalist.
Johannesburg, 22 Jul 2016
While there are many healthcare technology companies, not many focus specifically on women's health, says Yono Labs.
While there are many healthcare technology companies, not many focus specifically on women's health, says Yono Labs.

Following a successful kickstarter campaign, an in-ear wearable which aims to help women understand their ovulation cycles and predict their fertility window is now shipping.

Yono is worn in the ear to measure basal body temperature (BBT). A woman wears the silicone-encased earpiece (similar to an ear bud) all night where data is collected multiple times to determine lowest BBT.

After a night of wearing the Yono, users connect the wearable device to their smartphones and data automatically syncs into an iOS or Android application. Users can also choose to sync data with Apple's HealthKit.

"After many months of engineering efforts, the Yono is now shipping to our Kickstarter backers," says Vanessa Xi, CEO and founder at Yono Labs. The company is also shipping to customers who pre-ordered on the company's Web site.

"It has been very challenging to build the world's smallest wearable, making it a comfortable, accurate and convenient device that can fit in the ear. YONO is more powerful than traditional thermometers and we are very excited that our first customers will be able to start learning about their cycles from our device."

According to the CDC, one in eight couples have trouble conceiving or sustaining a pregnancy - making it clear the demand for this type of technology is high.

While there are many healthcare technology companies, not many focus specifically on women's health, says Xi.

"I created Yono out of my own personal challenges with conception and I saw first-hand the need for technology to accurately give me the data I needed. YONO is a wearable that gives women precise information - it is very discreet, easy to use and takes the guesswork out of getting pregnant."

Currently the start-up is selling directly to consumers but in the future it plans to work with other health and wellness applications to expand its market size and provide customers with a convenient way of collecting and analysing data, says Xi.

Yono's campaign on Kickstarter debuted last August and ran for 45 days - and the company got $53 000. "Because the company is venture-capital-backed, we were not only relying on the money we collected from Kickstarter backers, since building a hardware product is way more expensive than that."

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