sqord-logoSqord, a venture-backed Durham, North Carolina startup that helps kids get physically active and tracks their progress through a battery-powered waterproof device called the Booster, is moving to Seattle.

Sqord co-founder Coleman Greene tells GeekWire that the company considered both San Francisco and Seattle, evaluating the startup climates in both cities. He said both offer a lot to entrepreneurs, both they picked Seattle because the company has partners, customers and a large investor in the Northwest.

“We’ve seen a lot of support from those groups, which has led to some exciting new opportunities for us to explore,” said Greene. “This is all in addition to Seattle being a great place for technical talent and solid accessibility to capital. Probably most important for both Jeff (Wright) and me is that it’s a beautiful city that felt like a place where we could confidently (and affordably) move our families to from North Carolina.”

booster-sqordSqord is marketing its device and service directly to schools and youth organizations, hoping it can reduce obesity rates in the U.S. That’s a growing problem in the country, with a recent study by the Duke Global Health Institute finding that medical costs associated with childhood obesity total about $19,000 per child.Sqord is backed with $3.2 million in venture financing, provided by Seattle-based Providence Health Care and Kima Ventures. The 5-person startup also previously participated in the TechStars Chicago startup incubator.

“We believe that with the right balance, new technology can help spark that old school spirit of play we all remember from growing up — anything from neighborhood adventures to playground basketball,” Green said.

The company’s Booster device — similar to a Fitbit and carried in a pocket, worn on a wrist or attached to a shoe — includes an accelerometer that tracks kids’ movements.

sqord33“Instead of health metrics, we provide the kids with a more playful experience that includes an avatar we call their PowerMe that they can customize as they see themselves, they can collect points, earn medals, send messages and “high fives” and create friendly individual and group challenges all based around the idea that their everyday play is fueling this online community,” said Greene.

Here’s more on how the Sqord device is being utilized in Snohomish County — just north of Seattle — with teachers saying it is increasing activity levels for kids.

 

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/blog/techflash/2015/02/durham-sqord-follows-the-money-to-seattle.html?page=all

Sqord, which closed on $3.2 million in equity financing in January, is packing up and heading for Seattle.
The Durham startup, which was one of the first companies to go through Groundwork Labs accelerator at American Underground, is following the cash – not rejecting the state, says CEO Coleman Greene. He, along with his co-founder Jeff Wright, are leaving at the behest of a lead investor, Providence Health Ventures.
“The general feedback… and this is what we’ve heard throughout our existence, is ‘this is a space we’re interested in… we just don’t spend a lot of time in the southeast market,'” he says. So Providence gave them a choice – Seattle or the Bay area of California. They chose Seattle.
Customers, too, are plentiful in the west coast.
“All of our markets are coming online,” he says. “We’ve got a pretty unique distribution model where we’re doing some pretty large deployments and having feet on the ground is just helpful.”
Sqord’s mission is to get kids to play outside, and to do it, it’s leveraging the same technology that has them sitting in front of the computer – social media.
With partners that include Premera Blue Cross (which brought schools and YMCAs in the state of Washington onto its platform), Sqord has released a product kids can wear that keeps “score” of their activities. Points let kids upgrade their Sqord personas to add an extra level of excitement around games like tag.
Sqord, which participated in Chicago Tech Stars over the summer, “loves North Carolina,” he says.
So the team of five will be keeping employees here, even as it builds out in Seattle.

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