Adam Crofts has stepped away from Prevayl, the wearable tech startup that he co-founded with serial entrepreneur David Newns.
Crofts was a former personal trainer while Newns was one聽of the UK鈥檚 youngest-ever FTSE executives with two exits already under his belt when they came together to launch Prevayl in 2019.
The startup aimed to take wearable health technology to new heights by connecting sports clothing聽capable of delivering聽biometric data聽to its users.
Three years ago Stonebridge invested 拢7.5m聽and England footballer Declan Rice was one of a number of athletes to endorse the sportswear brand.
Tennis player Jodie Burrage and England rugby union star Freddie Steward joined Rice in being unveiled as 鈥楶revayl Pros鈥�.
At its height Prevayl employed 40 staff and there was ambitious talk of becoming a unicorn.
Although the company secured a number of patents for its technology it struggled to gain any traction in the fiercely competitive world of wearable tech.
Earlier this month rumours began to circulate that staff had been told not to come into work while crunch talks were held to discuss Prevayl鈥檚 future.
The result is several staff have been made redundant 鈥� leaving a core team of just 鈥榯hree or four鈥� 鈥� while Crofts has also left the business.
Newns told 老九品茶Cloud that one arm of the business 鈥� Prevayl Ltd 鈥� will go into administration while the remaining staff will focus on Prevayl Innovations.
He said: 鈥淩ather than rolling out our wearable technology we鈥檙e allowing other companies to use our patents and technology under licence to do it themselves.
鈥淚t鈥檚 very difficult for a small wearable tech firm to gain any traction. It鈥檚 expensive to launch your products against the likes of 聽Apple. We see our future as an enabler rather than a competitor.
鈥淲e鈥檙e now monetarising all the technology we鈥檝e developed over the years and we have nearly 200 patents.
鈥淲e were really good at developing innovative tech but we weren鈥檛 good at launching wearable tech products in a congested market.
鈥淭he business model was wrong. The idea of creating your own wearable tech products was wrong.鈥�
David Newns, chairman, Prevayl
Crofts confirmed to 老九品茶Cloud that he鈥檇 left聽Prevayl.
He said: 鈥淲e had some amazing projects and clients but the reality is the timeline from inception to getting a product out is so long. It鈥檚 hard for a startup.
鈥淲e thought we could get there faster by utilising AI while we were building up hundreds of patents. We鈥檙e proud of our achievements.
鈥淭he decision was taken by the board to concentrate on the IP side of the business. The 拢7.5m investment raise was used to build the IP portfolio.
鈥淚鈥檓 moving on after an amazing six years. I鈥檝e given everything to it and we鈥檝e learnt a hell of a lot.鈥�
Daniel Conway, a software architect at Prevayl,
鈥淥ver the last four years Prevayl has gone from R&D to launching a fitness app and clothing range, to developing an automated physical demands assessment solution to building healthcare AI models,鈥� he said.
鈥淭here have been twists and turns, pivots-a-plenty. Each time a new challenge and every time accepted, completed.
鈥淣ow my time at Prevayl has come to an end and I need some new challenges so if anyone knows anyone in need of a software architect…鈥�
The latest events are a far cry from Prevayl鈥檚 launch in 2019 when Crofts stated his ambition to become a unicorn and announced partnerships with Vodafone and the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre.
Speaking at the time Crofts said the company鈥檚 unique technology platform weaved graphene into its smart clothes to provide more data on the human body鈥檚 performance than any other platform in the world.
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Prevayl鈥檚聽garments聽contained聽鈥榠nvisible鈥櫬爐ech聽which connected them聽to an聽app聽which monitored performance and recovery.
The sensors were connected by invisible stainless steel threads, surrounded by a yarn that expanded with heat to keep them close to the body.
Commenting on their 拢7.5m investment in 2021, Stonebridge鈥檚 managing partner James Cox said: 鈥淲hat the company has created over the last 24 months is quite amazing and sits right in the sweet spot of what we believe consumers want.
鈥淭he founders are world class and well on the way to disrupting another large global market and were delighted that we can be part of that journey with them.
鈥淧revayl聽is the perfect example of the type of company which we love to back.鈥�
- Contact Chris Maguire 丑别谤别听