The wild story of how gut health AI toilet startup Throne raised $4M led by Moxxie

Summary

The tale of how smart toilet startup Throne landed its seed round is so full of serendipities, one could almost believe it was orchestrated by the hand of Fortuna, Roman god of providence. Throne is an Austin-based company working on an AI-powered toilet device for consumers. It uses computer vision (cameras pointing in the bowl plus AI software) to monitor gut health conditions. It just raised $4 million in seed financing led by Moxxie Ventures’ founder Katie Jacobs Stanton, with a bunch of other VCs participating and several famous angels like Lance Armstrong, Rupa Health co-founder Tara Viswanathan, and TrueMed founder Justin Mares (maker of brands like Kettle & Fire), the startup says. Throne isn’t a toilet, but a device that mounts onto the bowl of one. The device, combined with software, analyzes indicators of certain chronic conditions, as well as hydration and urological function — all in the privacy of the home. The software has added privacy controls such as anonymizing the images sent to researchers. The device is currently in a pre-production working prototype form, with a planned launch date of January, 2026, co-founder CEO Scott Hickle tells TechCrunch. In addition to the seed funding, Throne also announced it hired John Capodilupo, as its chief product officer. Capodilupo is best known as co-founder and former CEO of the WHOOP smartwatch device. Throne smart toilet deviceImage Credits:under a Throne license. Throne started as a joke The wild tale of how Hickle, a mechanical engineer, and Throne CTO Tim Blumberg, a full-stack software engineer, became smart toilet founders began in 2021 when they were playing poker with friends in Austin. The players started riffing on startup ideas they’d like to do but wouldn’t want to be associated with. “And everyone’s pitching, vice industry [ideas]; sex, drugs and rock and roll. Tim said, ‘smart toilets.’ I was like, ‘That’s hilarious. Clearly, you would name that company Throne,’” Hickle recalled. Fast forward t...