A startup company that recently relocated to Aliso Viejo is aiming to introduce breath analysis as a tool for weight management.
Invoy Technologies LLC moved from the Phoenix area to OC in early March. Its inaugural device measures ketones, which are chemical compounds that show how the body metabolizes fat—a key element in losing weight.
The company’s product is the Voyager breath monitor, which is made up of a cartridge and a breath bag, both of which are disposable. Users blow into the bag, insert it into the cartridge, start the test by pressing a button, and get results from a smartphone app.
Invoy says its devices can help people in doctor-managed weight loss programs in various ways, including customization based on metabolic response to food and exercise.
“We don’t have any really good indicators on whether or not somebody is metabolizing fat,” said Invoy founder and Chief Executive Lubna Ahmad, explaining that Voyager is designed to show “a direct indication of whether the body’s burning fat.”
Voyager is intended for home use and requires neither Food and Drug Administration approval nor a prescription from a patient’s doctor because it’s noninvasive.
The company plans to sell the device starting this summer “in a conservative fashion through well-selected weight-loss clinics,” Ahmad said.
“The reality is that sometimes a controlled rollout is the best rollout,” she said.
Invoy has 15 workers, up from five at the same time a year ago. It made most of the hires after its move to OC.
“This has been a year of rapid growth for us,” Ahmad said.
Invoy is pre-revenue. It has existed on a combination of angel investments and a first round of funding that closed last fall and was led by Miami Children’s Health System. The amount of funding was undisclosed.
Miami Children’s decided to fund Invoy after running clinical studies of its device, Ahmad said. “Sometimes the best investors are those who really understand the market. They have been fantastic partners for us.”
Ahmad said she doesn’t anticipate the need for another round of funding anytime soon.
Invoy’s reasons for moving from Arizona to OC included manufacturing and a desire to develop more products, something that requires workers with skills in medical devices.
“Whoever it is that’s running [operations] needs to have a very good understanding of medical device development, as well,” Ahmad said.
There are also methods to measure ketones through a patient’s blood and urine, but Ahmad said that using blood ketone meters often is painful and that urine ketone meters are inaccurate.
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Ahmad said she got the idea to start Invoy based on a childhood illness that inspired her to invent “pain-free technology.”
The Arizona State University alumna with a doctorate in biomedical engineering said she’s been able to lean on various advisers as she’s worked to grow Invoy, including her patent attorney, Irfan Lateef, a partner with Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP in Irvine.
Invoy director Thomas Berryman is another adviser. The three-year board veteran is chief executive of Soft Technologies LLC, which is based in Aliso Viejo. Soft markets the Finesse device for treating incontinence in women; Berryman’s career also includes a stint as chief financial officer of the former Irvine-based VLI Corp., the 1980s developer of the Today Sponge contraceptive.
“… I’ve been in the medical device community here for a long time, and I have consistently been impressed by how Lubna has executed,” Berryman said in an email, adding that Ahmad and Invoy are “a great add to the OC med-tech ecosystem.”
Invoy Chief Operating Officer Joseph Bishop also has a long resume, which includes working for Irvine-based Onset Medical Corp., a maker of minimally invasive surgical devices that Terumo Corp. in Japan acquired in 2012.
