Wearables are a crowded market, but in the fitness-tracking niche, many of the top devices today are still just glorified step trackers with fancier software and a few more bells and whistles. A company called Atlas Wearables wants to push the fitness-band market forward with a device that’s able to track which exercise or activity you’re currently doing, the reps you’ve completed, and even how your form compares to a library of form reference exercises.
The company has now raised just over a million to help bring its product to market, and is planning to ship its first device this winter, according to co-founder and CEO Peter Li.
He says the startup plans to reach full manufacturing capabilities by Q2-Q3 2015, selling devices at $249 MSRP.
The lead investor in the new round is Houston-based JRG Capital Partners. Local press had previously reported the raise, but the newly dropped SEC filing reveals it’s in the form of a convertible note and comes from 13 investors. The company had previously raised $629,000 from Indiegogo and another $625,000 from other crowdfunding sites and angel investors, Austin’s biz journal reports.
TechCrunch first came across Austin-based Atlas Wearables when it demoed an early version onstage at our CES 2014 Hardware Battlefield event. There, the team showed off the device in action, where it was able to differentiate between two different styles of pushups. The technology that makes this all possible is the combination of a built-in accelerometer and software that crunches data about the device’s spatial movement.
The algorithm is adaptive and learning, which means over time, the device will be trained to identify an increasing number of exercises. Atlas is now keeping track of its progress on that front here, where you can see which exercises it’s able to support now, which are close to being ready, and which are still under development. Those with the green light now include various bicep curls, burpees, different dumbbell curls and extensions, pull-ups, jumping jacks, jump rope, and more.
The company sold out of its initial pre-orders of 5,000 devices, and is now planing to ship this first batch before the end of the year. To clarify shipment times, Atlas last month said that those who order before August 31 would get their watches by December. Those who ordered afterward, will see their orders fulfilled by spring 2015.