Meet Comper, China’s smart medical device maker to help women get pregnant
Comper Healthcare, a home medical devices maker, wants to help women get pregnant with a smart thermometer.
In order to successfully get pregnant, many women calculate ovulatory periods carefully — but sometimes they do it in an inaccurate way. Comper Healthcare, a smart medical devices maker in Beijing, wants to help women get pregnant easier, by measuring the subtlest change in body temperature and predicting the once-in-a-month date of ovulation with their devices.
Seize the day
“It’s one chance in a month for a woman. Our fertility tracker can tell them the exact date of ovulation this month, and predict the next one,” said Ms. Du Han, Founder and CEO of Comper Healthcare.
A woman can release about 400 eggs in her lifetime. In the United States, 12.3% percent of women aged from 15 to 44 suffer from impaired fecundity, according to a study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, using data covering 2011–2013. In China that ratio is about 10%, according to China Business Network.
Comper’s vision is to develop smart devices to help improve the quality of health care.
The fertility tracker is essentially a precise thermometer plus an app — but it is smarter than a common thermometer, more like a private doctor at home.
Costing about RMB 599 (USD 90), the tracker calculates the date of ovulation by combining accurate measurement of body temperature with an algorithmic system.
A woman’s basal body temperature — the lowest body temperature during rest — rises a little, around 0.2–0.5 degree centigrade, when she is ovulating. The company said the thermometer can measure to an accuracy of 0.01 degree centigrade, enough to detect the aforementioned temperature rise that occurs during ovulation.
The startup partners with the scientist who came up with an algorithmic system by the name of Trigg’s Tracking System, used to calculate the exact date of ovulation.
The app, which tracks ovulation cycles, tells users which day is optimal.
Layout of products
Besides the fertility tracker, the company also offers doppler fetal monitors — devices that can record the heartbeat of a fetus, and smart scales.
Du told AllChinaTech that when she was preparing to get pregnant, she failed to find a product that was well designed and capable of meeting her needs. That is the reason behind her founding Comper.
The company has a team of 35 in-house researchers with experience in related fields. These researchers do the R&D and design for new products.
As to what differentiates Comper from other companies, Du said its products are just different from all traditional devices in the market.
“Our products will assist customers in five stages — preparation to get pregnant, pregnancy, post-pregnancy, kids aged under five, girls and boys,” Du told AllChinaTech.
Currently, all these products have not gone on sale yet, as the company has only just obtained licences to sell domestically from the China Food and Drug Administration.
The company will launch its products both online and offline in October. Online stores include leading platforms such as JD.com and Alibaba-backed Tmall. Their offline sales campaign will be in pharmacies and related supermarkets.
Business model
Du, who studied clinical medicine, founded Comper in Bejing in 2014, offering smart home medical devices and apps.
With about 50 employees, Comper will seek to partner with as many as 4,500 medical groups in China to get its products recommended by doctors. Medical group in China usually consists of several doctors who work together and share incomes.
Unlike other fancy smart devices that target the wealthy middle class, Comper said their products are for every family, poor or rich.
“Certain products, like infant formula milk, do not vary a lot for families with different income. Parents whose monthly income is RMB 5,000 or five times of that, all choose the same brands and products,” said Du.
She said this is also the case with smart home devices, and that people will buy the products, regardless of their income.
In 2015, there were more than 16.5 million infants born in China, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics.
The company also plans to sell health management services, along with the hardware devices collecting data from customers.
Heading abroad
Comper expressed its plan to launch healthcare products in overseas markets, including the United States and Europe.
The reason, Du explained, is that competition in these markets is less chaotic. Companies are less likely to steal your idea and pump out copycat products.
“We will abide by local laws and regulations and get licences before we sell in these markets,” said Du.
Comper is scheduled to obtain selling permission from the Food and Drug Administration of the U.S. by Q1 2017. The company will be granted the CE certification by the European Union by the end of this year.
Check out Comper Founder and CEO Du Han’s video interview, one of the startup founders featured on our “20 must-know startups in China” video journalism project for our Indiegogo campaign.
(Top photo from Publicdomainpictures.net)
