Canadian Watch Hopes to Match Pebble’s Kickstarter Success

What’s up with Canadian watch technology and KickStarter?

Pebble’s legendary Kickstarter campaign wrapped up with the company raising a staggering $10,168,645 from 66,613 backers. Tripling the previous record for the most money ever raised from a Kickstarter campaign, Canadian-born Allerta made history.

Now Vancouver-based MIO and their ALPHA project is getting some similar early traction.

MIO Founder Liz Dickinson wants ALPHA to be the world’s first strapless heart rate watch that you don’t have to touch that is accurate at speeds as fast as 20 km/h. Dickinson started raising funds on Kickstarter one week ago and have already raised over $80K from 423 backers.

ALPHA’s pace doesn’t compare to Pebble’s—in two days Pebble had $2 million pledged from more than 14,400 backers—but it is impressive nonetheless.