More than six out of ten Americans have had some sort of symptom signaling poor digestive health in the past week, but most still have no way to track what’s happening in the bathroom. On Tuesday, an Austin-based startup looking to help solve this problem closed its Series A round.
Science of the Throne – which sells an AI-powered toilet camera – hooked 10 million dollarsbringing its total collection to nearly $18 million. The tour was led by Will Ventureswith the participation of Emerson Collective, Moxie, Felix Capital, Cosmic Venture Partners And Off-script.
The startup, founded in 2023, exists in a category that has been largely untouched by the wearables boom.
“You can choose from 20 different devices to track your sleep, cardio, metabolic health, respiratory rate and exercise – but gut health, hydration and urinary function remain, by and large, a black box,” said Scott Hickle, CEO of Throne.
And all this despite the frequency of underlying problems, given that the majority of Americans suffer from gastrointestinal symptoms regularly, he noted.
Hickle added that Americans have about a 10 percent lifetime risk of developing cancer of the lower gastrointestinal or urinary tract. Colorectal cancer in particular, once considered a disease of old age, is now the leading cause of cancer death among U.S. adults under 50.
“Ultimately, our mission and vision is to build what we call the smoke detector for colon cancer,” he said.
Throne’s device, launched to consumers in March, attaches under the toilet seat, with sensors facing only down into the bowl. It uses Bluetooth to identify who is using the toilet within about three seconds – distinguishing between household members while remaining dormant for guests – so users can go about their normal business and then receive what Hickle calls “a new report card with every flush.”
The company’s system is based on two layers of AI. The first is a pipeline of about a dozen computer vision models that read the physical characteristics of waste and convert them into health metrics. The second layer transforms these measurements into daily, personalized information, in the same way as Cry Or Oura offer coaching, Hickle explained.
Throne’s AI-powered Gut Health Coach asks users about their lifestyle after an episode of poor gut health: what they ate, whether they were stressed, slept poorly, or traveled. Hickle noted that this allows him to gradually learn which personal factors correlate with good and bad days.
The device costs $399 and the subscription needed to get it working is $5.99 per month or $69.99 per year.
Hickle said he often jokes that Throne’s target customer is “everyone who poops.” But in practice, he thinks the customer base divides into a few distinct groups.
Some people are already frustrated by years of digestive problems. They want to finally be able to see their own patterns clearly instead of relying on memory, which Hickle says is notoriously unreliable when it comes to toilet habits. Others are those who already track their sleep and exercise and view gut health as “the missing layer.” Hickle pointed out that people in this category are particularly drawn to hydration tracking because hydration levels can vary significantly over the course of a day.
A third group uses the device to monitor family members, who are typically their aging parents or children with special needs. This isn’t a use case Throne was originally designed for, Hickle said, but one that turned out to be a “surprisingly beautiful” result of the product.
Although it is a category premiere, Throne is not without competition. Hickle named Kohler – the century-old toilet maker – as his main rival, alongside a handful of international players who have yet to launch their projects.
He argued that Throne’s advantage lies in both hardware and software – noting that Kohler’s smart sensor requires users to scan a fingerprint each time to identify who is using it, while Throne’s system is “truly hands-free and secure.”
Much of the startup’s new capital will be devoted to R&D, clinical validation and consumer education, Hickle said — the latter of which he considers essential, given that “no one wakes up in the morning thinking, ‘I’m going to put a camera in my toilet today.’
Photo: Antonio Hugo Photo, Getty Images