Basis raises $11.5M for health and activity tracker

The company adds Esther Dyson, Tim Chang, and Deepak Chopra to its board

The health monitoring craze is picking up steam. Today, health and fitness tracker Basis announced that it has raised $11.5 million in a Series B round of funding led by Mayfield Fund, with help from existing investors DCM and Norwest Venture Partners. Tim Chang, who previously invested in Basis while he was at Norwest before moving over to Mayfield, is joining the company’s board of directors.

Basis made its big debut back in November with a wearable monitor with several sensors to track the wearer’s activity level and vital signs. The device measures heart rate, skin temperature and sweat, calories burned, sleep patterns, and more. Since then, it’s made some high-profile appearances. At Vator Splash SF last month, P90X fiend Raj Kapoor and tech blogger Robert Scoble were both wearing Basis monitors. It looked like Stewart Alsop of Alsop Louie was wearing another band.

In addition to Tim Chang, Basis also welcomed holistic health guru and New York Times best-selling author Deepak Chopra to the board, along with esteemed angel investor and technology analyst Esther Dyson, who has long had a keen focus on health tech.

"People can now get a more complete picture of their overall health, with visibility into their activity and sleep, as well as important physiological metrics like heart rate," said Deepak Chopra in a statement. "This means Basis can offer a more engaging and insightful way for people to get and stay healthy."

But can it stay ahead of the curve in a space that’s becoming increasingly crowded? Basis is carving a spot for itself amid competitors like Jawbone, which rereleased its UP activity monitor, and Striiv, which is looking to gamify health and fitness. And then there’s Fitbit, which is rumored to be raising $30 million at a $300+ million valuation. And Lumo BodyTech raised $5 million last December for a spine and posture monitoring device that you literally strap to your back.

"Unlike other fitness-focused devices, Basis measures heart rate and other critical health metrics and plans to focus on software to deliver insights to users," said Tim Chang, in an email. "Basis eventually may not even be in the HW business, but has the disruptive sensor set and science to help evolve the wearables market beyond just accelerometers."

The company has evidently been deluged with orders, with a number of customers complaining that they still haven’t received their Basis monitor. Basis’s monitors sell for $199 a piece.