I’m please to announce our recent investment in Impact Biosystems, an adaptive hardware and software solution for health and fitness.

We are big Whoop wearers and proud early investors here at NextView. Through that company, have been fortunate to have a front row seat to the way athletes, trainers, and consumers have come to understand and appreciate the benefits of recovery. One of the core innovations of Whoop is the ability to quantify and measure recovery. It turns out that how our body feels can be misleading and counterintuitive. The magic of Whoop is that it allows users to measure what was previously unmeasurable and then take action.

In the same way, this sort of measurement and feedback mechanism is at the core of Impact Biosystems. In recent years, there has been an increased appreciation for the benefits of recovery and pliability of our muscles. Whether you are an elite athlete, weekend warrior, or stuck on zooms all day long, working to lengthen and restore your muscles has significant benefits to your performance, health, and everyday comfort.

But this sort of therapy can seem like voodoo magic. You can try using a foam roller or buy a typical percussive massage gun and just hammer away aimlessly. You can go to a physical therapist, which is highly variable and expensive. And in either case, there isn’t a way to quantify and truly understand the condition of your muscles and how they are trending as you live your life. You feel like you are doing something useful, but have a hard time really understanding what is happening and whether any of these activities are really working.

This is where Impact comes in. The company blends best in class tech leadership from MIT with world-class know-how from elite physical therapists and athletes to create the first device that can actually measure the conditions of your muscle tissue and respond in real time. The founding team also brings excellence in developing and shipping consumer tech products that have been used by millions of customers around the world from companies like Sonos and Misfit Wearables.

On a personal level, this is a product that I can’t wait to have and has become an acute need during the pandemic. Working from home with sub-optimal ergonomics has led to increased pain and physical issues for myself and for millions of others. I’ve also dealt with other physical ailments over the years that have baffled physical therapists, chiropracters, and others.  Impact may not be a panacea, but being able to begin to measure and respond to the condition of my muscular system will be an important first step.

We are excited to co-lead Impact’s latest $4.5M round along with our friends at Will Ventures as well as a number of longtime angels and friends of the firm. You can read more about the company and its vision here and can stay in touch with the team as they prepare for their launch by joining their waitlist.