Israeli startup Healthy.io maker of smartphone urinalysis buys its largest U.S. rival

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Founded in 2013, Healthy.io acquired Inui Health for $9 million. The company has developed a kit for home urine testing using a smartphone camera to analyze the results.

Israeli startup Healthy.io, which provides urinalysis at home via smartphone is buying Inui Health, its longtime rival.

The Silicon Valley-based competitor acquired for around $9 million in an all-cash deal that based on Inui Health to meet certain milestones, according to CNBC.

Formerly known as Scanadu, Inui Health was founded in 2011 by Misha Chellam and Walter De Brouwer. Its starting point was impressive. Inui Health provided a home scanning product for thousands of medical conditions. The company raised over $1 million on Indiegogo in 2013 to build its Star Trek Tricorder-like scanner. The campaign marked one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns of all time.

The company has raised in a total of $56.2 million from investors including Tencent Holdings and Redmile.

The American company will continue to operate from its current offices. The acquisition will help Healthy.io accelerate its efforts in the U.S. market.

CEO Dr. Jaime Tenedorio will join the Healthy.io team. The company will remain in Sunnyvale, California.

Healthy.io was founded in 2013 by CEO Yonatan Adiri, Roee Salomon, and Shachar Mendelowitz. Its system looks for signs of early kidney disease and urinary tract infections. It also plans to enter into pregnancy monitoring to detect possible complications. The company raised $90 million in financing from investors, including Aleph and Samsung venture.

Last week, Healthy.io was named to CNBC’s 2020 Disruptor 50 list.

In 2018, only three companies received the FDA clearance for a smartphone-based at-home urine test. The third one was a startup called Scanwell Health.

All the three companies — with some slight difference — send a kit to the patients with a stick that should be dipped in urine. The smartphone camera scans the results, which are then sent to the patients’ doctor.

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