(Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
Whoop, the wearable company that partnered with the NFL Players Association last year to track player strain and recovery, has secured a $25 million Series C funding round led by UAE71 Capital with participation from the NFLPA, Kevin Durant via the Durant Company and NBA Commissioner Emeritus David Stern.
The Boston-based sports analytics company says it plans to use the financing to accelerate international expansion as it works to turn WHOOP into a globally-recognized leader in human performance across both the elite and consumer markets.
Other investors as part of the deal include Thursday Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, Accomplice, Mousse Partners, Promus Ventures, NextView Ventures, Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey, Los Angeles Chargers offensive tackle Russell Okung (who announced his investment last April), Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz, MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte, and One Laptop per Child.
“We are at a unique moment in time in that humans are just now discovering what allows them to perform at the highest level,” Whoop CEO Will Ahmed said in a statement. “Our mission at WHOOP remains focused on unlocking human performance. We welcome our new and returning investors who see the massive opportunity to bring our human performance technology to the world.”
Whoop’s strap 2.0 wearable was distributed to every existing and incoming NFL player last year as part of the company’s deal with the NFLPA. The partnership, which was the first of its kind between a professional players association and wearable tech company, allows players to monitor their sleep habits and the strain on their muscles to reduce the chance of injury and perform at optimal levels.
At a time when player privacy and the monetization of their biometric data remains top of mind, Whoop gives NFL players access to and ownership of their health data as well as the ability to commercialize it through the NFLPA’s licensing program.
The company has inked a number of partnerships across major league and collegiate sports over the past few years. In 2017 alone it was approved for in-game use by the MLB and named the Official Recovery Wearable of the NFLPA. Also last year it added the Duke University men’s basketball team to its NCAA roster.
With the funding round, Whoop added four high-level members to its team, including Antonio Bertone, previously the head of marketing at Puma, who has joined the company as chief marketing officer and will maintain his seat on the company’s board of directors.
David Stern and Uber’s former engineering head, AG Gangadhar, who invested in Whoop through Thursday Ventures, both joined the company as advisors, while MIT Media Lab’s Nicholas Negroponte was granted a seat on the board.
