Supersapiens Announce Closure
Well. I’m not very happy about this.
Offical Statement: pic.twitter.com/5XLs3JlTRi
— Supersapiens (@supersapiensinc) February 29, 2024
Background
In Europe, Supersapiens built a nice little business around a 3rd party, invasive blood glucose monitor. Essentially it re-sold the Abbot Libre diabetes sensor packaged with an excellent Supersapiens app. Some integrations with Garmin and Wahoo completed the tech picture for committed athletes.
The company recently disclosed extensive financials in a bid to secure funding to target the huge but competitive diabetes market in the USA as growth in the EU may have plateaued.
Issues With the Platform
Generally speaking, the platform was good though obviously would have preferred not to have to wear an invasive patch that only lasted two weeks.
with a phone-free connection to Wahoo and caching inside the sensor, the only real tech issue for me was the unpredictability of the connection with the latest gen of Garmin devices. I seem to remember getting the Edge 540 and Forerunner 965 to work with old Garmin data fields but then later that stopped. Rather than troubleshoot I defaulted to other devices as needed.
Take Out
Both my partner and I loved the product and got a lot of lifestyle insights and sporting benefits from it.
I suspect that takeup levels in Europe did not make a financially viable business. Had the company been able to target North America from the get-go it probably would have been a different story.
At this moment I assume that the company’s proposed North American diabetes adventure is not going to happen and that the company has effectively ceased trading.
The software ecosystem and the patches will work for a while. I’ll update this post with the exact dates (please comment below if you get them before me).
Via @AlanG
- Shipping of Sensors: We have ceased the shipment of all sensors immediately.
- Memberships: All memberships have been terminated.
- App Functionality: The Supersapiens app will continue functioning for the foreseeable future, allowing you to access historical data for another 45-60 days. However, we will no longer provide updates, feature enhancements, or customer support.
- Dashboard and Integrations: Your access to the Supersapiens dashboard will remain available until March 31, 2024. We encourage you to download and save any data you wish to retain. All third-party integrations will be discontinued. We recommend reviewing any connected services to adjust your settings accordingly.
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It was great , but the customer support was horrible. The I loved it , I believe they wanted to be present in top level sports but they couldn’t make it. I had a conversation with top level sport scientist and ex-trainer of professional cyclist in the tour of France and told me and explain me why sugar measurement it’s kind of useless in top level sport and basically the measurement of lactate and improvement of VLamax was the most important factor. For them sugar was super controlled factor . So Supersapiens , as they did , pivot to diabetes sector but that sector is not sport focus at all and it’s full already with prices below their offering… they were trap
I wonder if they had plans to migrate to their own sensor eventually, making the reseller approach merely a market building exercise, and perhaps a very expensive one. If the reselling happened at a loss, no amount of market success could have made a difference if the invisible project of creating their own sensor turned out to be a failure. That would be like the Theranos, story, but the “doing it right” version of it.
i would assume that the regulatory hurdle would be huge for a new device
that said they wouldn’t be selling it for medical purposes so perhaps not a problem
I wonder what implication that has on future glucose level measurement by devices like an AW or Samsung watch. If an invasive measurement doen’t get approval, how will a non-invasive fare? Unless it won’t be considered reliable and all measurement are to be taken as a rough gideline for “refueling” your body. Almost like sleep tracking and resulting recommendations for your next night rest (yes Garmin….your sleep coach is somewhat useless)
I don’t see how there would be an impact.
the non-supersapiens market for invasive glucose (insterstitial fluids) measurements is massive. a non-invasive model is massiver (that is a word, or at least it is now)
once FDA approved, it will be broadly reliable
however, my reading of what several of the proposed new techs will implement is that it will be trend info. currently supersapiens is one reading per minute and, iirc, it’s 15 mintues for other Abbot-based tech. the trend info that, say, Apple might eventually have could be like once an hour or less. ie totally useless from a sports perspective.
Odd statement, they are shutting down but they are continuing their work. And all this just 11 days after announcing a new partnership with a cycling team.
Are they being take-over by some other tech company, or did Abbott end their collaboration supplying sensors. The sensors have been out of stock for two weeks before all this, when I tried to order.
IDK is the short answer. but thanks for the info.
i have asked if they still plan to do the diabetes-in-the-USA thing. But the issue there is that many CGMs are bought via medical insurance plans. so that makes it tricky for SS to get into I would have thought
Abbot – there have been supply issues in the past. I took those as being simple delay as Zoe had the same issue. So, yes i think it was supply constraints but simply from a lack of supply rather than a deliberate restriction. Recent shortages were probabyl from no money to buy them!
are they being taken over: IDK. I guess there is a reasonable chance. but effectively all you would be buying is the app, the people/employees, and any current debts!
Thanks for your reply, it is really sad that it didn’t work out for SS. I guess for many healthy young athletes in balance with his/her training, CGM may be of minor value. But when things start to go south, it can be really of value. I have been struggling to get back from overtraining for over a year, and for me as a master athlete the use of CGM’s have really giving me insight on what is wrong. Also did discover that I also am prediabetic to add further insult on my situation ;-). With the recent progress in science regarding the connection between overtraining and underfueling it is sad to loose SS.
Do you know if there are any other apps that can use Libre sensors, I use them with the regular Abbott app, which is rather limited. To bad I never was able to test the SS.
not as far as i know.
nothing else to my knowledge has the one reading per minute data resolution, tho i think Dexcom is just opening up thart frequency of readings to its api
…And the Supersapien site is back online without any notice about their previous closure/restructering…although the sensors are still out-of-stock. Wtf?