The company was founded by Matthias Vanoni and Joe Rice in 2014. The Biowatch concept, like many great inventions, was born from a misadventure in the life of co-founder Joe Rice. Back in 1985, one of Joe’s acquaintance, with a gambling problem, stole Joe’s bank card and check book. At that time, Joe happened to be working on a barcode reader for photographic products at Kodak and asked himself if he could also read through the skin – the answer was yes! These two events were the trigger to file a patent on vein recognition.
30 years later Matthias Vanoni, at that time a PhD student at IDIAP, had a revelation while reading Joe Rice’s patent. It took him just one day to learn more about Joe and another day to contact him and convince him to set out on the Biowatch SA adventure. Since then Biowatch SA has been up and running and constantly growing.
Like all startups working on an innovative and unique product, LeBracelet evolves. Our engineers push themselves out of their comfort zone in order to create a functional yet still very small device.
Anybody visiting the office can see the great sense of engagement and passion of each individual working at Biowatch. Everyone is goal oriented and passion-driven, two qualities that pave the way for a success story… A story that the Biowatch team is still writing.