Student crowdfunding campaign hits $1,000,000

Imperial student start-up BLOCKS has raised over a million dollars through its crowdfunding campaign.

Users can build a smartwatch that suits their lifestyle by combining modules for different purposes, such as GPS or heart rate monitoring. These modules sit around the wrist, instead of a standard watch strap. The team have launched the watch with five modules and plan to announce two more during the crowdfunding campaign.

BLOCKS includes a module enabling contactless payment

Imperial graduate, Alireza Tahmaseb, co-founder of BLOCKS, said: “You would need to buy a new smartwatch each year just to keep up with the evolving technology. BLOCKS beats other smartwatches by being future-proof. You can upgrade your watch by adding new features, module by module, as they become available. BLOCKS is the last smartwatch you’ll ever need.”

BLOCKS is built on an open platform, meaning that any company or individual can develop modules. The team anticipate there will be modules for gaming, sports, healthcare, the workplace, or even experimental ones for academic research – the uses of the watch will increase as time goes on.

The team met their original funding target of $250,000 worth of pre-orders in just 56 minutes. With nearly four weeks left to go and a current total of over $1m, their Kickstarter campaign is already the 16th most highly-funded in Europe of all time.

Imperial graduate, Serge Didenko, co-founder of BLOCKS said: “Thanks to all the support we have received from the College and Imperial Create Lab, we’ve been able to launch BLOCKS with great success. Hitting $1,000,000 with over a month left to go was fantastic and we’re waiting to see how that number grows over the rest of the campaign.”

The team have worked in partnership with two of the world’s largest manufacturers, Compal Electronics and Qualcomm, to bring the watch to market. They hope to ship the first orders of BLOCKS in May 2016.

The team’s campaign page can be found on Kickstarter