US start-up company WHOOP completed a US$100 million E round of financing, led by Institutional Venture Partners, with a valuation of US$1.2 billion. So far, the company has raised more than US$200 million in total financing. At the same time, Eric Liaw, IVP's general partner, will also join the company's board of directors.
Other participating investors in this round of financing include SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Accomplice, Two Sigma Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Thursday Ventures, Nextview Ventures, Promus Ventures, Cavu Ventures, D20 Capital and LionTree Partners.
Several professional athletes also participated in this round of financing, including Kevin Durant, Larry Fitzgerald, Patrick Mahomes, Eli Manning, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas.
Sports wearable device company WHOOP was founded in 2012 by Aurelian Nicolae, John Capodilupo, and Will Ahmed, headquartered in Boston, USA, to help users monitor sleep, exercise, and activity. The funds obtained in this round of financing will be used by the company for product and software development, global expansion and membership services.
WHOOP`s main product sports bracelet can monitor the user`s various physical indicators, including pressure, heart rate, calories, sleep, etc. Users can use the "Strain Coach" application to query data related to their exercise level in real time. The WHOOP sports bracelet is equipped with 5 sensors and collects data 100 times per second, which is much larger than the amount of data collected, processed and analyzed by other wearable devices.
It is worth mentioning that the WHOOP sports bracelet can also record the recovery time of athletes. It is very popular among American sports elites. Major League Baseball and the National Football League Players Association have established cooperative relations with the company. In addition, some NBA athletes are also using WHOOP sports bracelets.
So far, WHOOP has more than 330 employees, of which more than 200 employees have just joined in 2020. In the field of sports wearable devices.