Trackener: The Fitbit for Horses
Trackener are developing the future of equine care.
Having worked with Trackener through various programmes, the team at Capital Enterprise were keen to catch up with them to see what is coming next in their quest to keep every horse healthy and happy.
Pauline Issard, CEO of Trackener, has been round horses all her life. After encountering many health issues with horses that she took care of, she wanted to find ways to prevent these issues for other horses, or notice them sooner.
Trackener have developed ‘a fitbit for horses’; a device that measures a horse’s heart rate, activity, sleep and anxiety based on location and movements. The device is placed in a lycra bib on the horse and the data collected can be accessed from anywhere in the world via a mobile and web app, letting you know exactly how they are doing and sending you an alert in real-time if a horse is experiencing a problem. After meeting co-founder Jeremie, Trackener have since grown to a company of 5 people.
In January 2017 Trackener finished at Startupbootcamp, a host accelerator of our CASTS programme. Whilst at Startupbootcamp, the CASTS programme provided Trackener with growth hacking and pitch training workshops, with the Trackener team describing their time at Startupbootcamp as beneficial for building a strong network of advisors and getting a fully working prototype off the ground.
They then took part in our investment readiness programme, the Green Light Programme, in March 2017. Through pitch workshops, an investor masterclass and mentoring, Pauline recalls how the Green Light Programme enabled Trackener to refine their pitch and proposition, as well as learn how to meet investors.
Trackener then entered into a ‘transition phase’ while housed at our innovation space, IDEALondon, allowing them to consolidate and start their pilot in July 2017, which proved successful for raising money and finalising their product.
Having found that launching a hardware product takes longer than previously thought, Trackener have now gained much more data and customer traction, and will be launching their final product to paying customers in just a few weeks.
To date, Trackener have raised £160k, including funding from Angel investors and the OION SEIS Fund, to take them from pilot stage to launching their final product. These achievements show how Trackener have achieved a lot with a little.
Yet, finalising a product brings the need to raise more money. With this new round of investment, Trackener are looking to expand their team by hiring a data scientist to meet their data demand, push sales for more clients, and line up more clinical studies with their devices to fully prove the potential for early detection of equine health problems.
Pauline, the Trackener team, and the team at Capital Enterprise are excited to see where Trackener go in the coming months.
Special thank you to Pauline Issard.
