Vicis had a few hiccups earlier this summer, but that isn’t stopping investors from backing the company.
The Seattle startup, which develops a high-tech football helmet, just raised another $4 million via convertible note, GeekWire has learned.
There were 35 individuals — 25 current and 10 new investors — that participated in this round, including Steve Singh, CEO of Concur and SAP Managing Board Member.
The fresh funding is noteworthy in part because Vicis dealt with a setback in August when the company pulled its helmets from both the University of Washington and the University of Oregon football teams, citing the need to improve comfort and fit for players.
The two Pac-12 schools were the first collegiate programs using the Vicis helmets in fall practice and planned to have players wear them this season.
“This is not a surprise,” the company said in a statement at the time. “We expected the need for refinements. On-field use revealed opportunities for improvement regarding comfort and fit. We’re assessing the design changes and will make the helmet available for player use as soon as we’re satisfied with the changes.”
Vicis told GeekWire today that it is “in the process of implementing design changes addressing comfort and fit improvements.” There is no timetable for when the redesigned helmets will be available.
Update: Singh told GeekWire that “setbacks are part of building a company. The thing to focus on is whether or not the company is solving a meaningful problem in a manner that can be differentiated.”
The new funding will be used to continue manufacturing helmets “in preparation for commercialization” in early 2017, Vicis said. The company will continue to raise more funding in the coming months.
Vicis previously told GeekWire that around 25 NFL and 30 NCAA teams had expressed interest in testing the helmet for the 2016 season.
Vicis, which recently added Seattle Seahawks defensive stars Richard Sherman and Bobby Wagner to its coalition, says its helmet provides more protection against skull fracture, traumatic brain injury, and concussion than the traditional helmet used by athletes today.
The Vicis ZERO1 helmet, which retails at $1,500 each, differentiates from existing options because of a unique outer shell material that is designed to mitigate the forces thought to cause concussions on the football field and in other contact sports. The outer shell acts very much like a car bumper, absorbing impact before it reaches a player’s skull.
Vicis spun out of the UW in 2014 and one of its co-founders, CTO Per Reinhall, is the chairman of the UW Mechanical Engineering Department. After two years of development, Vicis appeared ready for teams to wear its ZERO1 helmet this season, but that process is now delayed.
Vicis has raised nearly $24 million since 2014, including the most recent round and another $6 million that came in this past May. Investors range from people like Roger Staubach, the 1963 Heisman Trophy winner and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback who led his team to two Super Bowl wins; to folks like Robert Nelsen, a biotech industry veteran and co-founder of Arch Venture Partners; and Bruce Montgomery, a veteran of the Seattle biotech scene. Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin is also an investor.
Injuries caused by head trauma are a serious problem in the football world. The NFL last month committed another $100 million for research and development of new technologies to address this growing problem.
