Year-over-year deal activity to wearable tech startups rose over 150% and funding grew 80% in 2013 as investors jockeyed for position in the expanding wearables landscape.
Last June, we took a high-level look at the total funding to venture-backed companies emerging across the wearable tech landscape from health & fitness monitors including Jawbone and Fitbit to wearable baby monitors like Sproutling and Rest Devices. And already, there have been some big updates in the wearable ecosystem. Jawbone, a Tech IPO pipeline company, is rumored to be raising financing at a valuation over $3 billion, while Intel recently acquired smartwatch maker Basis Science for $100M, its latest acquisition of an Intel Capital-backed company.
Using CB Insights data, we dove deeper into financing trends by stage and geography in wearable tech over the past two years. In 2013, investors put $458M into wearable companies across 49 deals. On a year-over-year basis, deal activity to wearable tech startups rose 158% while funding grew nearly 80%. Stripping out Foxconn’s $200M corporate minority round to GoPro in Q4’12, we see that YoY funding dollars actually grew by over 8x.
Wearable Tech Financing Trend by Stage
As early stage (primarily seed/angel-backed) wearable tech companies mature, the year saw Series A and Series B deal activity jump notably on a YoY basis. Wearable startups that raised Series A funding last year include Thalmic Labs, InteraXon, and Soundhawk. Late-stage activity (Series D+) in the wearable tech space is still limited, taking fewer than 10% of deals over the past two years but as the space matures and if notable exits begin to occur, this will likely pick up over time.
Wearable Tech Financing Trend by Geography
Geographically, over 40% of wearable deals took place in Silicon Valley since the start of 2012, followed by Massachusetts which saw deals to firms including Misfit and Rest Devices. Nearly 30% of all deal activity took place outside of major venture hubs ranging from Montreal (OMSignal) to Toronto (InteraXon) to Sweden (Narrative).
A list of the most well-funded startups and most active investors in wearable tech can be found on the ‘Research’ tab, after logging in to CB Insights. Note: This research is only available to subscribers with access to CB Insider. For more healthcare analytics financing and exit data and interactive rankings, check out the CB Insights Venture Capital Database. Sign up for free below.