After graduating from Founder Institute's Montreal chapter, Khalil Zahar founded Hykso and developed advanced wrist-detection technology, designed to provide depthful analysis of punches. This analysis enables athletes to optimize their training regiments and perfect their technique.
Since then, Hysko has attracted a great deal of attention and was awarded Best On-Stage Pitch at the International Startup Festival this year. Earlier this week, the prestigious start-up incubator Y Combinator announced that Hykso would be a member of its Winter 2016 cohort. By taking part in Y Combinator, the Canadian start-up has joined the ranks of Dropbox and Airbnb and is on course to receive seed funding.
“I started boxing about five years ago and I was really into it. At first, you really feel your progression, but as you get better, things start to be very incremental, until a point where you’re not really sure if you’re doing the right thing” - Khalil Zahar, Hykso Founder and CEO
After becoming involved in the boxing scene, Zahar - an experienced engineer - quickly noticed that the precise measurements and analysis found in other sports were absent in high-tier boxing and mixed martial arts. This lack of valuable feedback makes it difficult for athletes to progress and take their skills to the next level.
“If you’re doing weight lifting, you know exactly if you’re lifting more than a month ago. If you’re a long distance runner, you know exactly if you can run your 10 kilometres faster than before. But in boxing, nothing.”
By measuring the exact velocity, type, number, and accuracy of punches, Hysko's innovative sensors have quickly emerged as a driving force for a new, data-fueled era of boxing.
Hykso recently launched a closed beta, allowing Canada's National Boxing Team, Boxing Champion Javier Fortuna, and undefeated boxer Toka Kahn Clary to partner with Hykso and benefit from Hysko's analytics. However, this does not mean that Hykso is solely focused on professional boxers. Their product's ultimate goal is to become revolutionary for three facets of boxing by providing official data for live events, analytics for elite fighters, and gamechanging technology for more casual fitness boxers.
“We’re officially launching our pre-order campaign for our first production of 500 units that will allow fitness boxers to do something they weren’t able to do before: compete against each other without entering the ring.”
Read more about the news at BetaKit, Wareable, VentureBeat, BetaBoston, SportTechie, or SunMag.
Learn more about Hykso and their sensor technology here or follow them on Twitter.
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