Antonio Forenza was working as head of research and development at Rakuten Symphony, a telecom subsidiary of the Japanese company, when he realized he needed to find a better way to manage his stress levels.
A few years ago, he lost 40 pounds with the help of an Apple Watch, which counted steps and tracked his calorie burn, and he began to wonder if there was a device to assess his stress.
“I wanted to lose 40 pounds of stress, and realized that there was no wearable for that today,” Forenza told TechCrunch.
It was then that Forenza realized he had stumbled upon a gap in the consumer health market. Drawing on his engineering background, he decided to build the device himself using more than a century-old technology: the electroencephalogram (EEG) to detect and measure electrical activity in the brain.
Although EEG is used clinically to diagnose diseases such as epilepsy and sleep disorders, It can detect psychological stress by measuring high-frequency brain waves called beta waves. When these rapid beta waves persist for long periods of time, they can cause fatigue, insomnia, and emotional distress.
Forenza has collaborated with data scientists and biomedical engineers to develop AwareA small device worn behind the ear for continuous brainwave monitoring. The device transmits results to an app, which provides information about the wearer’s mood and offers AI-powered coaching suggestions to manage stress and improve mental resilience.
“Our brains are amazing at self-adjusting and making us believe we’re not under stress,” says Forenza. “It’s good to be in ‘fight or flight’ every once in a while. It’s part of our nature. But if you constantly fall into the ‘fight or flight’ trap, it leads to chronic stress, depression, anxiety.”
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Forenza claims that Awear actively prevents users from overexerting themselves before they go into overdrive Negative health effects.
Awear is a Startup Battlefield 200 finalist at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, where it won the health sector pitch competition.
While Stanford University’s Department of Psychiatry is currently testing the device to detect confusion and disorientation in elderly patients after surgery, Forenza’s initial focus is to sell Awear to individual consumers, similar to the approach taken by the Oura ring and other consumer wearables.
Earlier this year, Our Hustle Fund closed a pre-seed funding round led by Neremia Collective, Techstars and The Pitch Fund, and the company plans to raise a $5 million seed round in early 2026.
For now, Aware is only available for purchase through its early-access program. The device is available to early adopters — a group that already includes many other startup founders, a notoriously stressed-out group — for $195, which includes a complimentary lifetime app subscription.
After raising its seed round, the company will launch a Kickstarter campaign, following a strategy used by devices like Peloton and Oura. “It’s a path that has worked for a lot of other wearables. It gives you a lot of visibility and it’s a good way to acquire customers,” Forenza said.