Silicon Valley wants to monitor the one vital health metric your smartwatch cannot reach.

Wearables track your heart rate, sleep, and steps. Yet they remain completely blind to what happens behind the bathroom door. Throne Science wants to change that by placing a camera inside your toilet bowl.

The startup recently secured $10 million in Series A funding, bringing its total funding to nearly $18 million. Co-founded by a former Whoop executive, the company sells a $399.99 hardware device designed to track gut health, hydration, and urinary function.

The Wearable Blindspot

For millions of Americans living with chronic digestive conditions like ulcerative colitis and IBS, daily life is a guessing game. Smartwatches cannot help them. Throne’s goal is to turn daily waste into actionable clinical data, eventually acting as an early warning system for colorectal cancer.

The company is also testing a generative AI coach that interviews users after digestive episodes. This moves the device from passive imaging to active, personalized feedback.

The Privacy Barrier

But the hurdles are steep. Asking consumers to install a camera in their toilet is a massive psychological hurdle. The “ick factor” and privacy anxieties are formidable barriers to mainstream adoption.

There is also a clinical risk. Transitioning a consumer wellness device into a medical-grade diagnostic tool is incredibly difficult. If the AI triggers too many false alarms, it will exhaust patients and doctors alike. If it misses a critical signal, the consequences are devastating.

Throne has the capital to build the technology. Now, it must prove that the clinical benefits of toilet-bowl analysis are worth the ultimate domestic privacy compromise.