The company that turned a smartphone into a medical-grade ECG - and handed millions of people the power to catch a failing heart rhythm in 30 seconds.
AliveCor's primary brand mark. The Mountain View firm sells its consumer devices under the Kardia name.
— company logo, public brand asset
For most of medicine's history, the electrocardiogram lived on a cart. To see the electrical signal of your own heart, you had to be wheeled up to a machine, wired with a dozen leads, and read by a technician. AliveCor's founding idea was to invert that: put the recording device in the patient's hand and let the heart get caught in the act.
Founded in 2011 by cardiologist David Albert with co-founders Bruce Satchwell and Kim Barnett, AliveCor builds FDA-cleared personal ECG hardware and the AI software that reads it. Its Kardia devices capture a medical-grade tracing on a smartphone in about 30 seconds, then screen for atrial fibrillation and a growing list of other arrhythmias. The platform has recorded more than 160 million ECGs.
The user on the couch checking a fluttering heartbeat is only half the story. AliveCor sells to four constituencies at once: consumers managing or screening for heart conditions, clinicians and cardiology practices who need trustworthy remote data, employers and health plans looking to lower cardiovascular cost, and pharmaceutical partners running clinical research.
That mix matters. A gadget company lives and dies on hardware margin; AliveCor instead turned a single 30-second reading into consumer subscriptions, enterprise programs, and research partnerships - the same signal sold three different ways.
Atrial fibrillation is silent, intermittent, and dangerous - a leading contributor to stroke. Its cruelty is timing: it rarely shows up during the few minutes you happen to be sitting in a doctor's office. A once-a-year snapshot can miss it entirely.
"We are leading the drive to patient-centric, remote cardiological care."
— Priya Abani, Chief Executive Officer, AliveCorAliveCor's answer is availability. If the recorder is always in your pocket, the odds of catching an irregular rhythm the moment it happens climb dramatically. The 2025 KardiaAlert feature pushes this further - instead of reading each ECG in isolation, it compares every recording against your personal baseline and flags subtle drift over time. In cardiac care, the change often matters more than the snapshot.
From a single-lead iPhone case to a 12-lead AI system, AliveCor has steadily widened what a personal ECG can do.
The original FDA-cleared single-lead ECG. Records a medical-grade tracing in ~30 seconds and screens for AFib and normal sinus rhythm.
Since 2012The first FDA-cleared six-lead personal ECG, giving a fuller view of the heart's electrical activity than single-lead recorders.
2019Consumer membership adding advanced determinations, monthly heart reports, medication tracking, and clinician sharing.
2020A credit-card-sized ECG that slips into a wallet - one of the smallest FDA-cleared recorders made.
2021A cardiovascular program employers and health plans offer members, blending devices, coaching, and remote care.
2022An AI-powered 12-lead system for professional use, plus the 2025 6L Max identifying up to 20 arrhythmias with clinician review.
2024–2025Plenty of gadgets promise to read your heart. AliveCor's edge is that clinicians actually prescribe it. The company spent more than a decade accumulating FDA clearances and clinical validation rather than shipping features first and seeking approval later - a slower path that turned regulatory rigor into a moat.
Where the Apple Watch bundles ECG as one feature among hundreds, AliveCor does one organ exceptionally well: a purpose-built recorder, six leads instead of one, and algorithms trained specifically on arrhythmia. That focus is also why a 150-person company had the ECG patents to take Apple to the ITC - and win a 2022 infringement ruling.
AliveCor sells devices direct-to-consumer and through retail, then layers recurring revenue on top via the KardiaCare subscription. On the B2B side, KardiaComplete and the professional platform sell remote cardiac programs to employers, insurers, and health systems, while pharma partners fund AI development.
$150M+ total raised · Series F amount undisclosed
David Albert, Bruce Satchwell, and Kim Barnett set out to bring ECG monitoring to consumer smartphones.
The AliveCor iPhone ECG is cleared to detect atrial fibrillation and normal sinus rhythm.
The smartphone-connected recorder establishes the flagship consumer product line.
The first six-lead personal ECG ships; Priya Abani becomes chief executive.
A credit-card-sized ECG arrives as R&D with AstraZeneca deepens.
The ITC rules the Apple Watch infringed AliveCor patents; GE Healthcare leads a Series F round.
An AI-powered 12-lead ECG system extends the platform into clinical settings.
New AI products ship while the Federal Circuit rules for Apple on patent validity.
AliveCor sits at the intersection of medical devices, AI, and consumer health - close enough to the clinic to be trusted, close enough to the phone to be used every day.
Developing non-invasive, ECG-based monitoring, including the Kardia-K AI platform that reads elevated blood potassium without a blood draw - a "bloodless blood test" with FDA Breakthrough Device Designation.
Led the 2022 Series F, aligning AliveCor with a major cardiology and imaging hardware player.
Investor and partner bridging AliveCor's ECG technology with home blood-pressure and cardiovascular monitoring.
Applying AI to ECG data to surface hidden heart conditions such as long QT syndrome.
Competitive set: Apple Watch (ECG), iRhythm Zio, Withings, VitalConnect, Eko Health, Fitbit/Google, and traditional Holter monitors.
Founder David Albert's early phone-ECG demo spread online around 2010, helping ignite the personal-ECG category.
The KardiaMobile Card is roughly the size and thickness of a credit card.
A KardiaMobile reading takes about 30 seconds - less time than most pop songs.
A ~150-person company won a US trade ruling against Apple over ECG patents.
Its AI is being trained to estimate blood potassium straight from an ECG waveform.
Consumers buy under the "Kardia" name; the company itself is AliveCor, Inc.