The Traffic

From Paystack to Precision: How Temi Giwa’s ‘Tru’ is Redefining Fitness Tracking with Style

In a tech world dominated by boxy wearables and functionality-first gadgets, Temi Giwa, former Product Lead at Paystack, is making an audacious bet — that style and science can co-exist in the fitness tracking space. And if the early signs are anything to go by, she’s winning.

Within just 30 days, Giwa’s new company, Tru Count Inc., raised more than $130,000 on Kickstarter, shattering its modest $7,000 goal. The product? A sleek, 10mm-wide ankle-worn fitness tracker disguised as high-fashion jewelry — a radical departure from the clunky, screen-filled wristbands we’ve come to accept.

“Fitness trackers are ugly,” Giwa says bluntly. “And if something’s going to live on your body 24/7, it should feel like a part of you — elegant, effortless, desirable.”

Where Tech Meets Taste
At first glance, Tru looks like an accessory you’d find in a boutique, not a Best Buy aisle. It comes embedded in an assortment of anklets, bracelets, pendants, and charms — each swappable and customizable to match your outfit or mood. But inside the minimalist design lies a powerful movement sensor capable of outperforming many mainstream trackers.

Worn on the ankle, Tru offers up to 50% more step-counting accuracy, especially for people who push strollers, use treadmill desks, or do a lot of indoor walking — cases where wrist-based trackers notoriously undercount steps.

It’s waterproof, hypoallergenic, ultra-light, and boasts a battery life of up to a month on a single charge — a quiet revolution for women (and men) who are tired of overdesigned tech interrupting their aesthetics.

“We designed it like a piece of jewelry first,” says Giwa. “Then we embedded the science.”

The Spark: From Problem to Product
The idea was born, as many good ones are, from frustration. At her former job, Giwa worked at a treadmill desk — walking while she worked. But despite her activity, her smartwatch barely acknowledged the effort.

“I walked for hours and ended up with 700 steps,” she recalls. “It didn’t feel like a bug. It felt like the product wasn’t designed for someone like me.”

Months later, her sister — Tomilola Famuboni, an engineer and mother — echoed the same complaint. She had just given birth and realized her wrist-worn tracker wasn’t counting steps while pushing a stroller. That moment connected the dots: it wasn’t just about beauty; it was about accuracy.

The two sisters, leveraging their combined experience in tech, product design, and biomedical engineering, began prototyping in March 2024. By March 2025, they had a working prototype. And with their Kickstarter campaign, they were finally ready to test the world’s appetite for their bold idea.

Kickstarter: A Global Validation
Crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter aren’t typically friendly to African hardware startups. Most Nigerian campaigns — even the successful ones — top out below $30,000. But Tru shattered that ceiling with ease, quickly earning global support from women across the U.S., UK, and Nigeria.

By the end of the campaign, Tru had raised more than $130,000, with hundreds of pre-orders for the first batch of devices.

Giwa sees this not just as funding but as validation.

“It told us there’s a global appetite for something built with women in mind — not just for them to wear, but for them to love.”

Each backer receives a starter kit, which includes a Tru tracker, charger, and accessory of choice — priced at $119, targeting premium yet accessible consumers.

Building for the Overlooked Majority
While Tru is a gender-neutral device, Giwa admits that much of its inspiration and design centers on the experiences of women, a demographic she says is often overlooked in both tech and healthcare design.

“We are not building a pink version of a Fitbit,” she says. “We’re building something from scratch, with a woman’s lifestyle as the starting point — not an afterthought.”

The company plans to introduce more accessory types, colorways, and partnerships with fashion designers to ensure the tech keeps pace with personal style.

The software experience, too, has been designed with mindfulness in mind. The Tru app — compatible with both iOS and Android — provides more than just data. It focuses on gentle motivation, micro-goals, and personal movement rhythms, with built-in syncing to Apple Health and Google Fit.

“We’re not here to guilt you,” Giwa adds. “We’re here to help you move better — with joy.”

What Lies Ahead: Scaling a Hardware Startup
Giwa and her team have an ambitious roadmap. After fulfilling their Kickstarter orders — expected to ship by November 2025 — the team plans to launch an e-commerce site and explore retail collaborations, particularly with jewelry brands and health-tech platforms.

But the path won’t be without challenges. Unlike digital products, hardware is hard — from manufacturing and logistics to returns and software updates.

“We’re being careful not to scale too fast,” says Giwa. “Quality is more important than speed right now. The trust we’ve built early is everything.”

The company is also considering B2B partnerships — with wellness retreats, spas, corporate health programs, and even maternity clinics — where Tru’s form and function offer unique advantages over generic wearables.

A Symbol of What’s Possible
More than a fitness tracker, Tru has become a symbol — of what happens when women build for women, when African talent dares to enter global conversations on innovation, and when functionality doesn’t have to come at the cost of beauty.

As Giwa reflects on the journey from Paystack to launching her own hardware company, she remains grounded but ambitious.

“This isn’t about competing with Apple,” she says. “It’s about redefining how we think about movement — and making people feel good while doing it.”

And with over 1,000 backers and counting, Tru is already taking bold steps in the right direction — one elegant ankle at a time.

By Haruna Yakubu Haruna