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Vizio Part of $5.3M Round for Wearable Tech Firm

Irvine-based Vizio Inc. has taken a minority stake in a local startup that’s aiming to gain a foothold in the emerging wearable technology market.

The U.S. leader in smart TV and soundbar sales invested about $1 million in Pear Sports LLC, a developer of fitness training technology that’s also based in Irvine. The strategic investment, believed to be a first for Vizio, was part of a second fundraising round for Pear Sports that is expected to reach $5.3 million when it concludes in the coming weeks.

The round was led by another Irvine-based company, Innovate Partners LLC, and Nordic Venture Partners in Copenhagen, Denmark—both prior investors. Several private and family offices also were backers.

Vizio’s investment gets it a seat on the board, and both companies will jointly work on research and development efforts on wearable electronics, advancements in chip design, software and other potential electronic devices, according to Robert Allison, cofounder and chief executive of Pear Sports. He is the founder and managing partner of Innovate Partners.

“Vizio provides Pear with an ace advantage in product design,” he said. “They’re at the cutting edge of every chip and software protocol going on.”

Vizio and its chief executive and founder, William Wang, bring deep manufacturing connections throughout Asia and Mexico, a new hotbed of production for the company’s growing line of TV sets 50 inches and larger.

“Their relationships are almost untouchable,” Allison said. “They really understand scale. They know how to build a business fast.”

Lower Prices

Vizio, which has an estimated $3.1 billion in annual sales, has made a specialty of carving out big chunks of market share by developing products— most notably, flat TVs—at lower prices than market leaders. The company’s TV sales have grown since it started in 2002 and still account for the bulk of its revenue. The company has made similar gains in smaller segments, such as sound bars and other TV accessories, thanks to its manufacturing ties and distribution deals with retail giants Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Costco, Target and Amazon.com.

It’s a road map Pear Sports hopes to follow.

The company is targeting fitness buffs with a product that fuses a wearable device with sensors attached to the body and a mobile application that provides audio coaching. The sensors receive data, including information on heart rate and speed, which are then transmitted to the cloud, where they’re analyzed to improve workout performance in real time.

The product, which costs about $100 and includes a heart-rate monitor and headphones, is nearing 100,000 users in a hotly contested market that has gotten a shake-up in the last six months.

Reuters recently reported that Apple Inc. is building a health and fitness services platform as the Cupertino-based company ramps up hiring for health tech and hardware specialists.

That followed several media reports last month that Beaverton, Ore.,-based Nike Inc. planned to abandon next-generation models of its FuelBand fitness-tracking device, focusing efforts on related software instead.

Baltimore-based Under Armour Inc., meanwhile, acquired MapMyFitness for $150 million late last year, the first buy in its 18-year history.

More than 20 million registered users access Austin, Texas-based MapMyFitness’ tracking technology, which is available as an integrated feature in more than 400 devices, sensors and wearables.

Other Pear Sports competitors include Adidas and Jawbone.

Adoption

The wearable technology market faces some adoption challenges. Massachusetts-based Forrester Research Inc. estimates there were about 8 million customers with genuine interest in wearables last year.

Count Wang and Vizio Chief Financial Officer Kurt Binder, who signed off on the investment, among them.

Allison said he reached out to Vizio executives late last year, laying out a market strategy that includes partnering with established marathons and racing events that draw hundreds of thousands of participants annually throughout the U.S.

Vizio declined to be interviewed for this story.

Pear Sports will use the proceeds from the funding round to hire key executives, as well as boost sales and marketing, according to Allison.

The company, founded in 2010, previously got $1.2 million in venture funding. It employs 14 in Irvine and Solana Beach.

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