Connected health and fitness portfolio bolsters Nokia’s IoT business
A little more than a month after announcing the pending purchase of Withings, Nokia today announced closing on the $190 million deal.
The result is Nokia’s new Digital Health business unit, which “combines the talented employees from Withings and experts from the preventive health and patient care teams,” according to the Espoo, Finland-based company. “The new business unit builds on the pioneering work of Withings, offering a family of award-winning digital health products designed to fit seamlessly into people’s lives, empowering them to make smarter decisions about the health and wellbeing of themselves and their families.”
Withings sells scales, activity trackers, thermometers, blood pressure monitors, home and baby monitors, and other health-related products that use Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to connect to smartphones. Withings has proprietary apps for Apple iOS and Google Android devices, and has made its application programming interfaces available for free to developers who want to create apps designed to work with Withings devices. There are already more than 100 apps compatible with Withings devices, according to the company.
“This is the beginning of an exciting new chapter in the history of Nokia Technologies as we extend our product portfolio to include a series of powerful digital health technologies,” said Ramzi Haidamus, president of Nokia Technologies. “The Nokia brand is synonymous with innovation, connectivity and consumer technology, and the acquisition of Withings puts us in a perfect position to capitalize on the huge opportunity in the health space. We’re excited to welcome the Withings team to the Nokia family.”
Former Withings CEO Cédric Hutchings is set to lead the new Digital Health business unit and report to Haidamus. Under Hutchings’ leadership, Withings raised roughly $30 million in equity financing over the last eight years. Investors include 360 Capital Partners, BPI France, ID Invest Partners and Ventech.
