Withings raises $60 million to become the data-enabled bridge between patients and healthcare professionals

Withings, early pioneers of the connected health revolution, has announced a $60 million Series B funding round, co-led by healthcare investment specialists Gilde Healthcare, and long-term Withings partners and investors, Idinvest Partners and Bpifrance through their Large Venture funds as well as support from BNP Paribas Developpement, Oddo BHF Private Equity and Adelie Capital. Having led a paradigm shift in the way consumers and physicians interact by enabling accurate and regular patient generated data collection, Withings will capitalize on this investment to solidify its position as a trusted intermediary between patients and healthcare professionals. It will continue to invest in products and data services that help deliver more personalized, continuous and preventive medicine.
The company will invest funds to globally scale its dedicated business-to-business division Withings MED PRO that serves health professionals, and accelerate the development of the next generation of consumer health devices that bring medical grade and predictive capabilities into the home. It also plans to add 100 new positions in the United States and in France by the end of the year to strengthen its teams working on research and development, sales, and marketing.

A decade of data collection

In 2008, a small team of engineers created Withings, launching the world’s first connected scale in 2009. The team quickly discovered being able to regularly access information gave users a new power: manage their weight and take control of their health daily. Withings has built the largest ecosystem of connected, non-invasive health devices by reinventing everyday objects and endowing them with new medical powers: a scale that measures arterial stiffness, an analog watch that detects cardiac arrhythmias, a blood pressure monitor that detects valvular heart diseases or an under-mattress sleep tracker that detects sleep apnea. With over 45 technical patents, the Withings portfolio captures more than 20 vital health parameters including blood pressure, ECG, weight, pulse wave velocity, heart rate, activity levels, sleep apnea, and sleep patterns.

Transforming the relationship between patients and health professionals

With people spending most of their time outside of the doctor’s office, at-home health monitors not only give consumers more control over their health, they have extraordinary potential for doctors, hospitals and researchers. Having remote and regular access to precise medical-grade data allows professionals to offer more personalized, intelligent, and responsive care.
In 2019, Withings launched MED PRO, a dedicated business-to-business division that allows medical professionals, institutions, payers, disease management programs, coaching platforms, and researchers to leverage Withings devices and data analytics within their own ecosystems. With funding and against the current health emergency backdrop, Withings is actively growing this division. It offers remote patient and telemedicine services and solutions for dedicated health programs that manage chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, heart health, sleep, and weight management.

A multidisciplinary team with a reinforced medical expertise

In addition, MED PRO aids academic and pharma research, having been involved in over 100 clinical and academic studies by organizations such as Mayo Clinic, Harvard University, the European Georges Pompidou Hospital, the American Medical Association, Scripps Health. This also includes a current research initiative with the Department of Cardiology at the University Hospital of the Ludwig-Maximilian’s University of Munich, Germany, which is integrating its soon to be launched ScanWatch into a Covid-19 patient monitoring project. The ScanWatch is capable of tracking the blood oxygen saturation and the heart rhythm by wrist measurements.

From a small team of engineers, the Withings team has grown in size and scope to include people with diverse and non-conventional electronics backgrounds such as cardiologists, psychologists, a sleep doctor, and even a philosopher.

As Withings deepens its ongoing healthcare strategy, it will be guided by its newly appointed global Medical Advisory Board, comprised of eminent medical, research, and scientific leaders: Dr. John Halamka, President of the Mayo Clinic Platform, Dr. Stéphane Laurent, former Head of Clinical Pharmacology in Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou in Paris, and Craig Lipset, former head of Clinical Innovation at Pfizer.

With this new investment and the medical support of the new advisory board, Withings aims to invent a new generation of consumer health devices that will track new biomarkers and bring medical-grade, predictive capabilities into the home.
Eric Carreel, President and co-founder of Withings: “I strongly believe in technology’s ability to transform society’s health by allowing anyone to regularly monitor their vitals from home and involve health professionals in this process. We are in an exciting time where medicine is becoming personalized, continuous, and based on data analysis, and I am proud Withings is at the heart of this revolution. With funding from like-minded partners, we can scale our efforts globally and continue to invest in new technologies and AI tools that can detect and predict medical conditions.”

Mathieu Letombe, CEO of Withings: “This is an important milestone for Withings. We have combined technology and medical science during the past ten years to create an unrivaled portfolio of devices that continually and accurately measure a vast array of health parameters. With the healthcare industry increasingly embracing this technology and data, it has enthusiastically turned to Withings as a natural partner. Our devices enjoy some of the highest retention levels, cover more health vitals and work with more operating platforms than any other player in the business. The new influx of funding and medical expertise will help us bring even more exciting solutions to the market, making the possibilities for the next ten years boundless.”
Edwin de Graaf, Managing Partner at Gilde Healthcare commented: “With telemedicine on the rise, and the wider health industry’s growing need to collect and analyze accurate, reliable patient data, Withings is in a unique position to thrive and is an attractive investment for us. We look forward to working with the Withings team as they continue to redefine how patients and physicians interact.” Benoit Grossman, Managing Partner at Idinvest Partners: “Withings has demonstrated its leadership in creating elegantly designed connected health devices that millions of consumers want and continue to use. We’ve worked with the company since its infancy and are excited to be part of it as it enters this new era of opportunity.” Withings was advised by tech-focused investment bank Clipperton in the structuration of the transaction.