Breaking Down Investments In Wearables In 2014

A September 2014 study by CB Insights show that wearable technology investments are at an all-time high. In fact, in the first eight months of 2014, $502 million of venture capital was invested in the wearables industry.

The study shows that wearables have become more and more lucrative to venture capitalists recently, especially in the past three years. There was a huge increase of 135 percent in venture capital investments for wearables between 2012 and 2013. Also, the first eight months of 2014 saw 38 percent more money invested than in all of 2013.

Venture capital investments in the wearables market since 2009 add up to $1.4 billion. CB Insights calls the overall five-year trend of wearables investments “clear and rapid.”

Source: CB Insights.

According to the CB Insights study, most investment deals from the past two years have been made in the early stages. There were 56 deals included for collecting data. The breakdown by stage (Seed/Angel, Series A, Series B, Series C, Series D+, and Other) shows nearly two-thirds of deals during 2013 and 2014 were made in the Seed/Angel and Series A stages.

77 percent of money invested went to Californian companies, which makes up half of the wearables companies invested in from 2009 to 2014. The second-most active geography for wearables investments were for companies located outside of the United States, like France’s Withings, Canada’s Thalmic Labs, and South Korea’s Ybrain.

True Ventures of San Francisco, which invested in Fitbit among other wearables companies, was the most active venture capitalist in the field. Andreessen Horowitz came second, and Khosla Venture came third. The most well-funded wearables company that wasn’t acquired between 2009 and 2014 was Jawbone, followed by Fitbit and MC10.

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