Whoop, the fitness wearable company founded by Will Ahmed, has secured $575 million in a Series G funding round, pushing its valuation to $10.1 billion — a near tripling from its previous $3.6 billion mark. The round was led by Collaborative Fund and included major investors such as Mubadala Investment Company, Qatar Investment Authority, and medical device firm Abbott. High-profile athletes like Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James, Rory McIlroy, and Niall Horan also participated. This brings Whoop's total funding to approximately $900 million since inception. A key strategic element is the involvement of Abbott and Mayo Clinic, signaling a deeper push into medical-grade health tracking, according to Ahmed. He emphasized that the company achieved a $1.1 billion annual bookings run rate in 2023, a 103% increase year over year. Ahmed explained that bookings — not revenue — best reflects Whoop's financial complexity as a hardware and subscription hybrid. The new capital will fuel hiring, marketing, research and development, and global expansion, particularly in markets outside the U.S.
When Will Ahmed highlights bookings as Whoop's key metric, he's acknowledging that managing hardware logistics and subscriptions at scale is harder than pure software plays — and that investors now value operational depth in consumer tech. With Abbott on board and medical ambitions growing, Whoop isn't just selling fitness gear anymore; it's positioning itself as a health data company, a shift that could reshape how wearables are regulated and adopted in clinical settings. For African health tech startups like Helium Health or mPharma, this signals a future where device-backed health insights carry more weight — if they can meet the same rigor. Whoop's valuation leap shows investors aren't just betting on gadgets, but on long-term health ecosystems.
