Fitbit Files For $100M IPO

Fitbit just filed an S-1 declaring its plans to go public.

The filing states that the fitness-tracking company aims to raise $100 million in its initial public offering (that number could change). It also says the company will list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “FIT”.

Fitbit has sold 20.8 million devices total, with 10.9 million of them sold last year. Other details:

• Fitbit brought in $745.4 million in revenue last year, up from $271.1 million in 2013.
• It had 6.7 million active users at the end of 2014, up from 2.6 million at the end of the previous year.
• The company reported net income of $131.8 million in 2014, compared to a loss of $51.6 million in 2013.
• Foundry Group owns 28.9 percent of the company’s shares, True Ventures owns 22.4 percent and and SoftBank owns 5.6 percent. (Fitbit raised more than $80 million in funding, according to CrunchBase.)

The company unveiled its first Fitbit Tracker at the TechCrunch50 conference in 2008. It now offers six wearable health and fitness trackers (which collect data about things like steps taken and calories burned), as well as web and mobile apps, plus premium services like virtual coaching.

The filing acknowledges that Fitbit faces heavy competition, and yes, it mentions the Apple Watch. Fitbit says it competes successfully based on factors like brand awareness, variety of products, battery life and sensors, the online and mobile app experience, sales and marketing, and distribution:

By offering a broad range of products spanning styles and affordable price points and cross-platform compatibility, we empower a wide range of individuals with different fitness routines and goals that are difficult for other competitors to address. Moreover, our singular focus on building a connected health and fitness platform, coupled with a leading market share, has led to our brand becoming synonymous with the connected health and fitness category. This singular focus on health and fitness has driven us to dedicate significant resources to developing proprietary sensors, algorithms, and software to ensure that our products, which are specifically oriented towards health and fitness, have accurate measurements, insightful analytics, compact sizes, durability, and long battery lives. We believe this singular focus allows us to compete favorably with companies that have introduced or have announced plans to introduce devices with broad-based functionalities, including health and fitness tracking capabilities, which are not necessarily optimized for health and fitness usage.

Featured Image: fitbit

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