Mio Global Raises $15 Million to Build Next Generation of Fitness Wearables

Mio Global, maker of wrist-based heart rate technology, has raised $15 million in funding. The round was led by Hydra Ventures with participation from private investors.

Founded by Liz Dickinson in 1999, the Vancouver-born company has been a long-time pioneer and industry leader in heart rate monitoring technology. Mio Global was the first company to introduce a continuous optical heart rate sensor in a sports wrist watch, the Mio Alpha, which offers EKG-level accuracy for fitness training and day-to-day monitoring.

Recently, Mio introduced Personal Activity Intelligence, a personal health metric that is backed by medical research and a software platform that uses heart rate to track the body’s response to all types of physical activity while providing actionable feedback to help users maintain health.

The funding will be used to launch the Mio Slice, which is the next generation of Mio’s wearables and is the first activity tracker to capture all-day heart rate data and display PAI directly on the wristband.

“The era of heart rate has finally arrived. Multiple wearables offer accessible, unobtrusive heart rate monitoring, yet most consumers do not fully engage with the heart rate sensing capabilities or do not know how to make sense of heart rate data,” said Liz Dickinson, Founder and CEO of Mio Global. “PAI solves this problem by using one simple metric. This new investment will be used to fuel continued growth and develop future technologies that will improve global health.”

Launched in 2011, Hydra Ventures is the corporate venture arm of adidas AG.

https://borndigital.com/2016/03/21/mio-personal-activity-intelligence-2016-03-21