Naked Labs raises $14 million for its body scanner mirror

Naked
Labs

• California-based startup Naked Labs just unveiled its
  flagship product: a high-tech mirror and scale that delivers
  precise information on your body including weight, height, BMI,
  and measurements.
• Naked Labs also closed a $14 million funding round led
  by Founders Fund which included investments from NEA, Lumia,
  and early Uber and SpaceX investor Cyan Banister.
• Naked Lab’s co-founder Ed Sclater says he has ambitions
  for his product’s tech in the fields of retail, medical care,
  and more.  

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For Ed Sclater, co-founder of Northern California-based startup
Naked Labs, climbing onto the
scale isn’t just an age-old, necessary but often depressing
bathroom ritual, it’s an approach to health and fitness that’s
potentially damaging.

“If you get on a traditional scale, you get a single number 
— your weight,” said Sclater. “The problem is that if you work
out, you’re going to be losing fat and gaining muscle, but the
scale will keep telling you that you’ve made zero progress. If
you’re trying to get in better shape, that information is
absolutely damaging.”

For years, Sclater and his team at Naked Labs have been creating
a futuristic mirror that can deliver detailed information about
your health including your weight, body mass index, and body
measurements (the circumference of your left bicep or the length
of your legs, for instance). The product they’ve created is a
sleek 3D body scanner that’s the antithesis of the dusty scale
hiding beneath your bathroom sink.

To use Naked’s body scanner, you climb atop a scale that then
rotates in front of a slim, tech-equipped mirror. In a few short
minutes, information is sent to your phone through Naked’s app
that delivers not only precise information on your physical
health and its progress overtime (metrics including lean mass,
fat mass, and body fat percentage are all included) but an
animated prototype of your body, as well.

Naked Lab’s smartphone-paired technology delivers
precise data on your body.
Naked
Labs

With its product reveal, Naked Labs has closed in on a cash
infusion from Founders Fund, NEA, Lumia
Capital, Venture 51,
and Seabed VC. Founders Fund
partner Cyan Banister, who’s made early bets on companies like
Uber and SpaceX, led Naked Lab’ s $14 million round and committed
some of her own money to the team, as well. 

“That’s how bullish I am on this product,” Banister told
Business Insider. “I invested personally in it. It’s a very
futuristic product. For people who have never had access to
something like this before, it’s like magic.”

Banister said that she believes that Naked Lab’s product
has the potential to not only transform the fitness industry, but
to inspire a new wave in fitness-oriented social
media. 

“I believe that people will share these images and data to
social,” Banister said. “The social behavior behind this will be
amazing.”

But Naked’s technology isn’t just relegated to the world of
fitness: the applications for Naked’s body scanning technology
are seemingly limitless, said Sclater. 

Naked Labs co-founder Ed Sclater says that the
applications of Naked technology could be used in numerous fields
including retail, automation, and medicine.
Naked Labs

Already in the works are plans to pair Naked’s data with fashion
retailers to create an online world where your virtual avatar can
shop for outfits fitted precisely to your measurements. 

“Our biggest problem is figuring out what not to do,” Sclater
said. “We have opportunities in the gym space, the medical space,
the insurance space where companies are moving from reactive to
proactive care. We’re interested in working with anyone who wants
to customize the world for your body.”

This could be anything from bespoke furniture — tables and
chairs made exactly with your body’s measurements in mind, for
instance — to automative technology, which could use the
company’s data to adjust rearview mirrors and seats to a driver’s
optimal safety.

For now, Naked’s product, with a retail price of $1,395 (along
with $100 in shipping) is something of a luxury item. Naked’s
team says that they hope to pare the price down in the future so
that it appeals to wider consumer markets, but for now, you might
see Naked’s scanner popping up at gym or health centers. 

“Just about every gym under the sun has contacted us,” said
Sclater. “We’re interested in how a partnership might work —
and similarly with doctor offices and other medical institutions.
We’re definitely exploring the path of making the scanners
available to people who can’t afford them.”