How KUMA Is Building the Universal API for Biometric Data
Connecting Every Wearable to Every Application in Real Time
Nithyasri Manikandan
Helping Applications Understand How Users Feel
Your wearable device knows you didn’t sleep well. Your meditation app does not. Your ring detects elevated stress levels. Your car does not respond. Today, biometric data is everywhere, but it is not connected.
Wearable devices continuously generate valuable signals about sleep, stress, recovery, and overall health. However, this data remains locked within proprietary ecosystems. Developers must spend significant time translating fragmented data formats, which can account for up to 70% of their development effort.
The result is a disconnected experience across applications. Digital health apps fail to adapt to user needs, immersive environments lack real-time responsiveness, and industries lose billions due to inefficiencies caused by fragmented data systems.
KUMA changes this dynamic. KUMA is building a universal API for biometric data that connects any wearable device to any application in real time. Its edge-native AI processes biometric signals directly on-device, transforming raw data into contextual, explainable insights with latency under 100 milliseconds. This enables applications to respond instantly. Digital health platforms can adapt to user conditions, extended reality experiences become more immersive, and automotive systems can detect fatigue in real time. What was previously static and siloed data becomes a continuous, actionable layer across applications.
Why Is This Problem Significant, & How Large Is Its Impact?
The fragmentation of biometric data is a growing constraint across industries such as healthcare, automotive, and immersive technologies.
The impact is significant:
- Over 560 million wearable devices were shipped in 2024
- The wearable technology market is projected to exceed $100 billion by 2027
- Fragmentation across platforms results in more than €21 billion in annual inefficiencies
- A large share of digital health applications fail due to a lack of personalization and real-time responsiveness
As the adoption of wearable devices continues to scale, the ability to unify and operationalize biometric data becomes increasingly critical.
KUMA addresses this by providing a standardized infrastructure layer that enables real-time integration across devices and applications. By processing data at the edge, the platform avoids latency and privacy challenges associated with cloud-based systems, making it suitable for use cases that require immediate response and high reliability.
Meet the Team Behind KUMA
KUMA is led by a multidisciplinary team with expertise across artificial intelligence, neuroscience, and product design.
- Alessandro De Angelis (CEO): Alessandro brings experience in fundraising and business development. He secured €200,000 in non-dilutive funding and established early partnerships with organizations such as Oracle, NVIDIA, and Plug and Play before generating revenue.
- Marco Accardi (CTO): Marco has over 10 years of experience in deep learning and real-time systems. He leads the technical development of KUMA’s platform and teaches machine learning at institutions across Europe.
- Sabrina Pippa (Creative Director): Sabrina holds a Master’s degree from Politecnico di Milano and leads product design. She conducted a user study that achieved 98% satisfaction, validating the platform’s usability.
- Sonia Litwin (Lead Neuroscientist): Sonia specializes in EEG and HRV research and co-developed KUMA’s patent-pending Context-Aware Biometric Engine.
Together, the team combines scientific depth with strong technical execution and product design, enabling them to build a system that bridges complex biometric data with real-world applications.
Why We’re Excited to Invest
KUMA sits at the intersection of two major trends: the rapid growth of wearable devices and the increasing demand for real-time, context-aware applications. What differentiates KUMA is its edge-native architecture. Instead of relying on cloud processing, the platform processes biometric data directly on-device, enabling real-time insights with minimal latency. This unlocks use cases that are not feasible with traditional approaches, particularly in environments where speed and reliability are critical. The company has already demonstrated early commercial interest.
KUMA has secured two letters of intent with an XR studio and a licensed therapy platform, each valued at over €150,000, and is actively engaged in multiple pilot discussions. The team has also shown strong execution early on. They developed a working prototype, validated it through user studies, secured strategic partnerships, and filed a patent before raising external capital. We are proud to join KUMA as their first institutional investor in their $1.5 million pre-seed round. As they launch their beta API and convert early demand into revenue, KUMA is well-positioned to establish a universal standard for biometric data integration.
For more information about KUMA, visit their website at anecoica.net.
Plug and Play is one of the most active VCs globally. Our goal is to fund the teams building the defensible businesses of the future. Join our ecosystem today.
Discover our global locations
We have a community of experts all over the world. We work as a bridge between Silicon Valley and the rest of the world, making innovation open to anyone, anywhere.