They're the Russian company that raised over $1 million on Indiegogo in 2014 for a wearable that was supposed to track, just by your wearing it, how many calories you consumed.
They've been rightly pilloried for years by Pando Daily including a delicious quote from ZDogg on their technology who described it as
"some straight Ghostbusters, Peter Venkman bullshit"Plainly put, the device hasn't delivered on its promises to magically measure the calories you consume, though it does deliver something - money into the pockets of its owners who don't seem to have any scruples about selling to a desperate population a device that hasn't been proven to work (review from Engadget here).
And if you don't believe me about the proof, the quote that HealBe's co-founder Stanislav Povolotsky gave Pando Daily's James Robinson succinctly sums it up,
"Proof, yeah… that is a tough piece for us."And proof shouldn't be hard to come by. Controlled feeding for even just a few days while wearing the GoBe wearable and poof, if validated, a goldmine, not only for the investors, but for obesity researchers and the public the world over.
That 3 years after launch they're still nowhere, without a single peer reviewed publication, speaks volumes.
And with that all said, I just can't wrap my head around the fact that just a few months ago, researchers at the University of California Davis, entered into a 5 year agreement with HealBe to study their device.
Now I know what's in it for HealBe. Marketing.
As to what's in it for UC Davis?
There I'm at a loss.