Trying to avoid gluten for medical or personal reasons? Nima can help and it’s now available for purchase for $279. This little device detects even trace amount of gluten in minutes. Just stick a bit of a french fry or salad dressing into one of Nima’s capsule’s and wait about three minutes for the device to return the results. It’s that easy.
The $279 carries a bit of a sticker shock. It’s not inexpensive. Yet for those with Celiac disease, the Nima can help them enjoy life without rolling the dice.
My daughter has celiac and my wife adopted the gluten-free lifestyle out of solidarity. It’s a choir eating at restaurants or careless family member’s houses. We’ve been using the Nima device for the past week and it’s helped. Despite noble efforts by cooks, gluten can still appear in seemingly innocent items either by cross contamination or hidden ingredients. The Nima saved my daughter from having to spend a night in the bathroom after we found some gluten in a french fry. We haven’t used it at every meal. The Nima feels like a last resort test — for when you want to know if that queso dip will ruin date night.
The cost comes from the price of the capsules. They only work one time and a 12 pack costs $72.95. The company offers discounts through monthly subscriptions. Buyers can opt for 24 a month at a 20% discount, though it’s $116.94 a month. But for the right person, that’s a small price to pay to not have to worry.
The company says it’s working on other capsule designs including versions that can test for dairy and nuts.
The company launched its effort in 2013 and went on to win TechCrunch’s Hardware Battlefield competition at CES 2016. In May of 2016 the company raised a $9.2M Series A from a rockstar group of hardware investors including Foundry Group, Lemnos Labs, SoftTech, Upfront Ventures, and Nest co-founder Matt Rogers.