Our story

Firstbeat was founded in 2002. Our background is at multidisciplinary research that combines state-of-the-art knowledge in physiology, mathematical modeling and behavioral research.

Professor Rusko has been conducting research on athlete overtraining from the beginning of the 1990s at the Research Institute for Olympic Sports. Since then there have been several multidisciplinary projects aiming at assessing whether stress and recovery could be assessed in a practical manner in everyday life. Part of this work was to adapt methods and concepts previously developed for athlete monitoring for work assessments. The research also included clinical validation studies on quantification of autonomic nervous system function through heart rate variability (HRV) based methods. The results indicated that body functions and stress can be assessed with indirect, HRV based methods.

Since its foundation Firstbeat has been developing novel heart beat based analysis that would allow increased accuracy in real-life measurements wherein it is not possible or practical to use laboratory equipments. Our development is based on innovative combination of mathematical modeling and algorithm development with physiological research. We have deployed large measurement data bases including both laboratory and field measurements. The aim of the physiological modeling has been to develop our products according to sound physiological principles, which is the foundation for best accuracy and applicability.

The first consumer sports product that included Firstbeat heart beat analysis technology was launched in 2004. Suunto t6 heart rate monitor included Firstbeat heart rate variability based model on body functions, including for example oxygen consumption, EPOC, energy consumption and training effect calculation. Today there are several advanced sports instruments in the market that provide analysis results based on Firstbeat analysis, including Garmin and Suunto heart rate monitors.

We have been working in occupational health and corporate wellness services already since 2004. Our first software product for professional use launched in 2004 and included reporting of stress, recovery and exercise parameters. At the beginning the solutions were used mostly for measurement and research, whereas today most emphasis is on scalable and commercially applicable service models. We are privileged to work with our partners to help in delivering quality services to corporate customers.

The background of Firstbeat is in sports sciences and our products have been always used in competitive sports. We launched a specialized analysis and reporting software for elite sports in 2006 (Firstbeat SPORTS). As of today 200+ teams and training centers throughout the world are using our products professionally to deliver superior performance, including sports such as football, ice hockey, motor sports, basketball, tennis, skiing, and rugby, golf, swimming, skating, sailing and rowing.

Firstbeat has received considerably recognition for its innovations and development, including National Innovation Prize of Finland in 2004 and distinguished position as one of the most potential small technology companies. Since today, we have analyzed more than 500 billion heart beats, through which we have already made impact on creating wellbeing and performance.