WHOOP gets $100m
Strain and recovery wearable, the WHOOP strap, has just announced a whooping series 5 funding round of $100million.
New investors include some of the sporting elite, namely SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Accomplice, Two Sigma Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Thursday Ventures, Nextview Ventures, Promus Ventures, Cavu Ventures, D20 Capital, and LionTree Partners. Professional athletes investing include 2x NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant (via ThirtyFive Ventures), 11x Pro Bowler Larry Fitzgerald, Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes, 2x Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning, 4x Major Champion Rory McIlroy, and Major Champion Justin Thomas.
WHOOP (Review) has got some serious heavy-weights on their board including ex-PUMA and ex-UBER execs. Not to mention significant levels of usage amongst pro team sports people.
Their move to a subscription model seems to be paying off and you have to wonder what they are going to do with £100million and what the exit strategy is.
The answer to my own question would be that we will see a new WHOOP sensor soon enough. The tech hasn’t moved on so much from the original. Even the WHOOP 3.0, IIRC, just involved a few software tweaks to on-device calculation and broadcast.
As to the question of who will buy them, then I’ve no idea. There’s clearly value in the revenue stream but it’s a revenue stream that comes with risks.
- Ignoring the sensor, WHOOP’s basic platform offering is good. However, it is relatively easily replicated.
- IIRC WHOOP subscribers will get the Gen4.0 sensor free (assuming there is a new sensor).
Want to buy WHOOP? Well, the price tag to gain control right now would be something like $1.2bn based on normal multiples and a premium for control.
Source: whoop.com
Must Read: Check out the latest WHOOP Review
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They really need a new sensor. But anyway the subscription is so expensive it’s hard to justify. Guess it’s time to go with Biostrap EVO, just wondering what’s the status regarding the EU certification…
i’ve just asked about the biostrap evo
yes some people say whoop needs a new sensor. i guess all ohr sensors are differently accurate for different people – the results i get from garmin’s oHR for me essentially invalidates ALL their metrics that rely on a sporting level of hr (so I use a chest strap).
then there are the boundaries of accuracy that are required to give sufficiently accurate metrics that the platform intends. whoop’s biggest mistake was broadcasting hr, although they tried to mitigate it with a strap for the upper arm which increased accuracy.
My HR with WHOOP is all over the place during runs. It’s all fine during sleep tracking but as soon as I start running I get ridiculously high HR spikes, and avg. HR which doesn’t match my H10’s data at all. The sensor is VERY susceptible to cadence lock it seems. Garbage in – garbage out. If strain is overestimated on a daily basis then it follows that recovery is wrong as well, unless I sleep 10+ hours a night (which I don’t, and don’t need because my strain is nowhere near as high as WHOOP records it). I actually like the strap for sleep tracking since it’s so low profile and the most unobtrusive as far as wrist devices go. As a distance runner my upper arm is thin enough that I can use the wrist strap on my bicep as well where I get better results but it’s still off when I compare it to my H10. From what I gather this is mostly a runner’s problem since it seems to work for a lot of athletes who don’t run.
I don’t find it particularly expensive, since the platform as a whole is a dream come true for any data driven athlete, BUT: It needs to work, i.e. if EVERY metric relies on HR, then you better have spot on HR recording! I read that their 2.0 sensor was more accurate since it had more power and did artefact cleaning et cet. on the device. The battery however only lasted for a day or so. I hope they come up with a solution for 4.0 that makes the sensor viable for runners again, otherwise I cancel my sub as soon as they let me (I think I’m bound to 6 months).