Nokia Buys Into Wearables Market With Withings Acquisition

    Nokia said on Tuesday it has agreed to pay 170 million euros for French startup Withings, entering the red-hot wearables market.

    “We have said consistently that digital health was an area of strategic interest to Nokia, and we are now taking concrete action to tap the opportunity in this large and important market,” Rajeev Suri, CEO of Nokia, said in a statement.

    Healthcare is expected to be one of the largest vertical markets in the Internet of Things, with analysts forecasting that mobile health will be the fastest growing health care segment from 2015-2020, growing 37 percent a year on average.

    Withings was founded by Eric Carreel and Cedric Hutchings in 2008 and is headquartered in France, with approximately 200 employees across its locations in Paris, France, Cambridge, US and Hong Kong.

    Withings’ portfolio of regulated and unregulated products includes activity trackers, weighing scales, thermometers, blood pressure monitors, home and baby monitors and more, and is built on a sophisticated digital health platform, providing insights to empower people to make smarter decisions about the health and wellbeing of themselves and their families.