Montreal’s OMsignal, which calls itself “the leader in smart clothing technology” and maker of the first-ever collection of Biometric Smartwear, has raised a $10 million Series A round, led by Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP).
The startup’s existing investors also took part, including Real Ventures, Mistral Venture Partners, Golden Venture Partners, David Cohen (managing partner, Techstars), Flextronics and Primera Capital.
Rob Stavis, a partner of BVP, and Ori Sasson, a partner of Primera Capital, are also joining the company’s board of directors.
OMsignal was founded in 2011 by Frederic Chanay and Stephane Marceau. They thought that clothing is the ultimate wearable medium, not to mention the only wearable we’ve been wearing our entire life. “Smart clothing will help people be healthier, fitter and happier.”
The team is made up of scientists, software and hardware engineers, fashion designers, intelligent textile specialists, product and UX experts. Along with the shirts, the company also developed a “pioneering platform” in bio-sensing clothing.
The first collection of Biometric Smartwear included four shirts that track user performance, health and fitness, via health sensors embedded into the fabric. These sensors are connected to a small electronic module on the shirt and send the user’s activity, physiological stress and fitness levels to the OMsignal mobile app.
“Smart clothing will become a pervasive and normal aspect of consumers’ lives,” said CEO Stephane Marceau. “Following the recent launch of our Biometric Smartwear collection, we are continuing to receive orders from all over the world, developing new designs and working with top partners to bring our technology to an even wider consumer base. This new funding as well as BVP’s track record in taking disruptive technologies to the masses will further help OMsignal in achieving its company intent at scale and to continue to drive the next evolution of wearable technology.”
Meanwhile BVP’s Rob Stavis said smart clothing is the “next frontier of the wearable revolution and OMsignal’s technology is breaking new ground with a full software stack that provides users with highly accurate and valuable data insights for fitness and daily health.”
“OMsignal has the component technologies to become a standard technology for data extraction in the apparel industry and we are excited to work with Stephane and the OMsignal team as they change the way we think about clothes,” he added.
