Driftline raises $800K and launches the world's first algorithm to quantify human endurance
Last month, the Icelandic startup Driftline announced it had secured $800k in seed funding and that it has developed the world’s first algorithm for the accurate and simple quantification of human endurance. This algorithm is the result of 20 years of R&D in advanced heart rate kinetics.
The funding that Driftline has raised comes from multiple sources. Driftline has raised $350K dollars from Icelandic investors and received $450K in grants from public research funds.
As discovered and defined by Driftline, endurance is shown to reflect the alignment of exercise thresholds, which in turn reflects the systematic recruitment of different muscle fibers. Specifically, Driftline’s combination of patent-pending data algorithms coupled with unique analytics capabilities reduces the extraordinarily complex science of endurance down to a single number.
With Driftline’s new Insurance app users can start tracking their fitness right away. If desired, they can even import past activity data without even having to leave the couch. Indurance then recommends an optimized training plan for each user, based on the fitness assessment. Indurance presents a reliable assessment of maximum heart rate and maximum speed from submaximal exercise. The user will also gain new insight into his or her own physiology, including vital biometrics such as endurance, muscle typology, metabolic rate and fat oxidation. The software is designed to work with existing fitness trackers and smartwatches.
The Driftline software is also designed for corporate or institutional users and could potentially replace traditional maximum effort cardiovascular exercise testing. Traditional fitness testing requires expensive lab equipment and leaves you lying on the floor, gasping for air. With Driftline, more accurate results than these first-gen options are obtained by simply going out for a casual run, bike, swim, or walk wearing a personal fitness tracker of your choice.
The discovery of endurance could present the missing link for the monitoring of many vital health- and fitness biometrics. With Driftline, anyone can easily and above all, accurately measure their endurance and gain an important new tool for personal health- and fitness management.
“Driftline has created a true ‘seismic shift’ in the science of quantifying endurance taking on and solving a challenge that has frustrated the world’s leading exercise scientists for decades with such a simple-to-use, yet a supremely accurate solution that I invested in the company,” said Arnar Pétursson, 53 times National Running Champion of Iceland, a coach, a member of the World Athletics Organization and the CFO of Driftline. “For the past few years, I have been coaching and training members of the Icelandic national team using our algorithm to recommend unique training programs for my runners – and it was a resounding success that improved not only their endurance, but my own as well!”
