Antonio Forenza was working as head of analysis and growth at Rakuten Symphony, a telecom subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate, when he realized that he wanted to discover a higher approach to handle his stress ranges.
A couple of years earlier, he had misplaced 40 kilos with the assist of an Apple Watch, which counted steps and tracked his calorie burn, and he started questioning if there was an analogous gadget to assess his stress.
“I wished to lose 40 kilos of stress, and realized there’s no wearable for that immediately,” Forenza advised TechCrunch.
That’s when Forenza realized he’d stumbled onto a spot in the client well being market. Drawing on his engineering background, he determined to construct the gadget himself, utilizing a greater than century-old expertise: the electroencephalogram (EEG) to detect and measure electrical exercise in the mind.
Whereas EEG is used clinically to diagnose illnesses equivalent to epilepsy and sleep issues, it will probably additionally detect psychological stress by measuring high-frequency mind waves referred to as beta waves. When these speedy beta waves persist for prolonged durations, they’ll lead to exhaustion, insomnia, and psychological misery.
Forenza collaborated with information scientists and biomedical engineers to develop Awear, a small gadget worn behind the ear for steady brainwave monitoring. The gadget transmits outcomes to an app, which offers information about the wearer’s temper and affords AI-powered teaching recommendation for managing stress and bettering emotional resilience.
“Our mind is phenomenal at self-adjusting and makes us imagine we are not pressured,” Forenza mentioned. “It’s advantageous to be in ‘combat or flight’ each infrequently. It’s a part of our nature. However in case you fall into the entice of fixed ‘combat or flight’, then that leads to continual stress, despair, anxiousness.”
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Forenza claims that Awear helps customers proactively intercept extreme stress before it leads to negative health effects.
Awear is a Startup Battlefield 200 finalist at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, the place it gained well being class pitch competitors.
Whereas Stanford College’s psychiatry division is presently testing the gadget to detect confusion and disorientation in aged sufferers after surgical procedure, Forenza’s main focus is on promoting Awear to particular person shoppers, related to the method taken by the Oura ring and different client wearables.
Earlier this 12 months, Awear closed a pre-seed funding spherical led by Hustle Fund, Niremia Collective, Techstars, and The Pitch Fund, and the firm plans to increase a $5 million seed spherical in early 2026.
For now, Awear is obtainable for buy solely via its early-access program. The gadget is obtainable to early adopters — a bunch that already consists of many different startup founders, a notoriously stressed-out group — for $195, which features a complimentary lifetime app subscription.
After elevating its seed spherical, the firm will launch a Kickstarter marketing campaign, following a method utilized by units equivalent to Peloton and Oura. “It is a path that labored for a lot of different wearables. It provides you a variety of visibility, and it’s a great way to purchase clients,” Forenza mentioned.
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