Fireside invests in wearable tech startup Witworks

Bangalore-based consumer IoT firm Witworks Consumer Technologies Pvt. Ltd. has raised an undisclosed amount of investment from Fireside Ventures, Investopad, P39 Capital and a syndicated group of angels.

The round was led by Kanwaljit Singh (Fireside Ventures), Rohan Malhotra and Arjun Malhotra (Investopad) and Manish Singhal of pi Ventures in his personal capacity, according to a statement.

Others who participated in this round include Anupam Mittal (founder, Shaadi.com), Pranay Jivrajka (COO, Ola), Maninder Gulati (chief of strategy, Oyo Rooms), Abhinav Sinha (COO, Oyo) and top executives from ITC.

The funds will be used for development and launch of Blink, a wrist-wearable platform designed to provide access to contextual information and services on the go. The company makes smart devices in the home and lifestyle space.

"Witworks has combined design, technology and functionality to create Blink. It has the potential to redefine the role of a smart watch," said Kanwaljit Singh, managing partner at Fireside Ventures.

Witworks was founded in 2014 by IIT Kharagpur alumni Somnath Meher, Ankit DP and Chandrashekhar Iyer.

In a similar segment, GOQii Inc, a wearable devices startup launched by Indiagames founder and former CEO Vishal Gondal, raised an undisclosed amount from the venture capital arm of Edelweiss Financial Services Pvt in February Ltd.

Prior to that, India's second-largest IT services firm Infosys Ltd said it will invest $3 million (around Rs 20 crore) from its Innovation Fund in wearable tech startup WHOOP Inc.

New York Stock Exchange-listed Fitbit Inc is one of the major players in wearable tech. Many other tech companies globally, including Apple, have launched wearable devices.

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