Exclusive: Co-Founded By Former Whoop CTO, Throne Science Raises $10M To Track Gut Health From The Toilet

figure — throne Science, a startup that makes an AI-powered toilet camera to track gut health and hydration, has raised $10 million in a Series A round led by Will Ventures, it told Crunchbase News exclusively. Emerson Collective, Workshop, LEAD VC, Salt VC, Accomplice, Moxxie Ventures, and several other investors also participated in the financing.

The round brings Throne’s total funding to nearly $18 million since its 2023 inception. The startup was founded in 2023 by CEO Scott Hickle, who previously worked for nearly a decade in software product management at various companies, and former Whoop co-founder and CTO John Capodilupo, for whom the company’s mission is also a bit of a personal one as he has ulcerative colitis.  “We started Throne because we believe it’s inevitable that people will one day measure their health from their waste,” Hickle told Crunchbase News. Throne co-founder and CEO Scott Hickle holding the company’s device. [courtesy photo]Throne uses computer vision analysis to turn the raw camera data into health metrics. To achieve this, Hickle says the startup uses a pipeline of a dozen different computer vision models, some of which were trained by practicing gastroenterologists, to analyze various characteristics of stool and urine. Connecting the dots Earlier this month, Throne introduced a beta version of its Gut Health AI coach, which lets users ask questions about their data and receive personalized feedback.  The tool uses LLMs to interview users after episodes of bad gut health to understand what the relevant factors underlying each episode might have been.  “It’s a conversational AI experience very similar to speaking with a dietitian or nutritionist who might ask you about stress or changes in your diet or sleep,” Hickle said.  Throne makes an AI-powered toilet camera to track gut health and hydration. [courtesy photo]Over time, as a member completes more of these journal entries, the AI gut health coach aims to identify what factors are most commonly associated with poor gut health, as well as which ones are most commonly associated with good days, according to Hickle. “The coach connects the dots between someone’s diet, their lifestyle, and what’s actually happening in their gut, turning daily readings into insights they can use,” Hickle said. “This is where we think the long-term value lives, and it’s a meaningful differentiator.” Capodilupo, who serves as Throne’s chief product officer, believes that longitudinal data “is the whole game.” Throne co-founder John Capodilupo was previously a Whoop co-founder. [courtesy photo]The magic at WHOOP was never any single measurement — it was watching the same person, day after day, year after year. That’s what makes a product feel like it actually knows you, and it’s also what pushes the science forward…,” he told Crunchbase News via email. “Gut health is even more underserved. There’s essentially no dense longitudinal dataset on human GI function, which is why so much of IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) care is still guesswork. Building one is as important to me as the product itself.” Throne sells directly to consumers but is also exploring sales through clinicians, particularly functional-medicine practitioners. A third potential business line involves academic and pharmaceutical research.