Narrative, the Swedish wearable life-logging camera makers, have been bought up by employees and a few of the original founders after the company was put into bankruptcy earlier in the month.
The company, founded in 2011, a subsidiary of Swedish Born Startups AB, with 42 employees and over Euro one million in revenues in 2015 from 10,000+ customers for its cloud service, did not generate enough cash flow to survive.
According to Breakit News, the company raised SEK100m from a number of Swedish and Silicon Valley investors, including Khosla Ventures.
Styleintelligence consultant Thomas Andersson co-created a Wearables Deep Dive (PDF download) for Fung Global Retail & Technology published mid-summer 2016. The main takeaway from a deep dive into the sector was the wild disparities in putting a finger on market value with many of the large research houses indicating market size and growth varying from the high to the ridiculous.
We believe that wearables still have some way to go before there are compelling use cases for B2C products. Wearable cameras are not new and increasingly used by police forces around the world.
However, with increasing moves in the quantified-self space, perhaps there will be enough of an ecosystem flourishing where life log cameras fit in neatly. Here's for hoping!
PS The new Narrative company with its 10,000+ inherited customers is seeking about $1-2m financing.