WHOOP, the wearable tracker company that provides users with insightful performance analytics, has been valued at $1.2 billion after receiving an additional $100 million in Series E financing. According to Crunchbase, WHOOP has raised $104 million over six prior rounds of funding (their largest being a $55 million Series D round last year). That means their Series E financing has effectively doubled WHOOP’s total funding, bringing the number to $204 million.
And according to Huddle Up, other notable investors include the late former NBA commissioner, David Stern, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, the NBA and MLB, and top athletes such as Patrick Mahomes, Rory Mcllroy, and Eli Manning. With this new injection of capital, WHOOP has said that they plan on reinvesting into the user experience and community.
Disclaimer: BarBend has produced content sponsored with WHOOP in the past. This article is not a paid piece of content.
View this post on Instagram
How WHOOP Works
Once someone becomes a WHOOP member, they’ll receive a WHOOP Strap, worn on the wrist. It uses sensors to track a person’s vital and then provide the wearer with a host of informative and insightful analytics, which include: heart rate variability, bodily strain, sleep quality, and recovery.
Other wearable devices track heart rate and calories burned. WHOOP’s selling point is that they deliver performance-specific metrics in a way that allows the user to restructure their training for optimized performance. Another key point is WHOOP’s dashboard, which outlines all of those metrics in a visually appealing and easy-to-understand way on their dashboard.
[Related: Podcast: What you’re Missing About Recovery with WHOOP CEO Will Ahmed]
For example, say you feel great, and you’re about to crush a workout in your home gym; your WHOOP strap may tell you that your recovery is sub-par. You feel recovered, but you aren’t. So, you decided to lower your training volume, lift some lighter weight, and then get into bed earlier. The next day, WHOOP may tell you that you’re ready to go HAM because you prioritized your recovery the day before. The adage of “listen to your body” need not apply anymore.
WHOOP’s advanced metrics are a big reason why athlete’s such as 2020 CrossFit Games runner-up Katrín Tanja Davíðsdóttir and Brooke Wells, and six-time Games athlete Marcus Filly use the device. Davíðsdóttir told WHOOP that sleep is her top priority and that using it keeps her accountable.
WHOOP’s Future Plans
CEO Will Ahmed took to Instagram to thank his employees and customer for their years of support. He also provided some insight into how WHOOP plans on utilizing this new injection of capital.
“I can tell you that we’re just getting started; the best has yet to come,” Ahmed said in the post. “We’re going to take all of this capital and reinvest it in your WHOOP membership, so expect a lot of great new features in the months to come.”
View this post on Instagram
In a statement he wrote on WHOOP’s website, Ahmed dug deeper into what this means. It seems that the company will focus on three key areas — coaching, community, and membership services. For coaching, Ahmed writes that WHOOP plans on providing 24/7 services that “tie your specific goals to the feedback that WHOOP is giving you,” meaning the data will be more personalized. The community will also open up to WHOOP users, allowing more member interaction to facilitate learning. Lastly, Ahmed admits that customer support has slowed at certain points due to growth. They’re adapting the model to be an on-demand feature, which will make the Membership Service team available through chat or on a call.
“The promise of health monitoring is that it…can make you understand things about your body that you never knew,” Ahmed wrote. “WHOOP is going to dive deeper and deeper into coaching our members to improve their health. I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who is part of the WHOOP community. And on behalf of the WHOOP team, thank you for believing in us. We’ve been building WHOOP for over 8 years, and we’re just getting started.”
Featured image: @whoop on Instagram