Lemonade Lab, which develops sensors for athletes, has scored $5.8 million led by a Foxconn subsidiary. The Boston- and Tokyo-based startup will form a strategic partnership with FIH Mobile, which provides manufacturing services for mobile device makers.
This is the latest in a string of hardware investments made by Foxconn, whose manufacturing clients include Apple, Microsoft and Acer, or its units. In June, it put $118 million into SoftBank’s robotics division, which makes “personal robot” Pepper, while Ginko Ventures, its European investment arm, led a $25 million round in French IoT platform developer Actility.
Interestingly, Foxconn also appears to be increasing its non-hardware investments. For example, it participated in mobile operating system developer Cyanogen’s Series C in March, and reportedly invested in Indian e-commerce company Snapdeal earlier this month.
In addition to its wearables, Lemonade Lab’s also makes a cloud-based platform that analyzes data from its sensors and gives wearers performance feedback while they are training. The company’s current sensors are designed to be worn on the wrist or attached to bicycle handlebars. Along with a funding round in 2014, Lemonade Lab’s latest round brings its total raised so far to $10.3 million.
Lemonade Lab’s first batch of products will be targeted to professional cyclists and runners, before it starts competing directly with companies like Fitbit, Misfit, Jawbone and Garmin by chasing after the consumer market.
In a statement, co-founder and CEO Kunihiko Kaji said Lemonade Lab will use FIH Mobile’s manufacturing platform to brings its devices to market, which will launch in the U.S., Japan, France, and Taiwan later this year. The company told TechCrunch Japan that each wearable will be priced between $500 to $800.