Best Buy invests in N.C. mobile fitness earbud technology; leads $5.5M round

Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) is making a bet on the prospects of a mobile health and […]

Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) is making a bet on the prospects of a mobile health and fitness technology offering developed by North Carolina startup Valencell.

Best Buy Capital, the venture capital arm of the consumer electronics retail giant, led a $5.5 million series B round of venture financing in Raleigh-based Valencell. Also participating in the round were existing investors TDF and True Ventures.

Valencell has developed earbuds that have the technology to track physiological metrics such as heart rate, calories burned, steps taken, distance traveled and speed. The data can be tracked in real time while the user listens to music or talks on the phone. Data can be streamed to smart phones or mp3 players through wired or wireless links, which would allow the user to use that personal information with training, coaching or fitness applications on mobile devices and online.

“People everywhere are listening to music while running and exercising,” CEO and co-founder Steven LeBoeuf said in a prepared statement. “Integrating heart rate sensors directly and seamlessly into music earbuds fits right into the behavior of consumers today.”

Valencell believes there is a market for its offering. The company cites research from PricewaterhouseCoopers that indicates 88 percent of physicians said they would like their patients to track their health information. Also, 40 percent of individuals said they would buy a personal health-monitoring device or pay for a subscription to send health information to their providers. Besides fitness, Valencell sees its technology being used by the military, first responders and gamers.

Valencell will use the series B financing to expand the company, pursue licensing deals and add new physiological monitoring capabilities to the technology. LeBoeuf acknowledges that there are competitors in the mobile health and fitness space, but he believes that Valencell’s technology will set it apart from the pack. The company last year studied the accuracy of its sensor technologies at the Center for Living Campus at the Duke University Medical Center. The company is currently looking for licensing partners who could incorporate Valencell’s technology into their own headsets.

Valencell was started with seed funding from LeBoeuf and two co-founders who started the company in 2006. Before the current financing round, Valencell had raised $1 million in venture capital and also received more than $3 million in R&D grants.

The company and technology is explained further in this news report from WTVD:

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