Lebanon-based wearables start-up Instabeat has raised an undisclosed amount of series A funding from Wamda Capital, Jabbar Internet Group, a Dubai-based group of internet companies across the Middle East, and a group of angel investors, including Google’s Georges Harik.
The company wants to use the funds to accelerate its growth and bring its first product to market.
Instabeat has developed a waterproof heart rate monitor for swimmers that can be mounted on the goggles instead of being attached around the chest. The device provides instant visual feedback about the swimmers performance, and is currently available to pre-order.
“Various existing wearable devices can track your movement throughout the day, but not while you’re in the water. As one of the only ones that is waterproof, we are the missing piece in the puzzle,” said Hind Hobeika, the firm’s founder and CEO.
The wearables company raised $100,000 from Lebanese incubator Berytech, in a seed investment round in 2011.
“Hind is a great entrepreneur from our region that has innovated and designed a product that has global potential. We think the business has tremendous potential with the current product and with future products in the wearable technologies field,” said Samih Toukan, chairman and CEO of Jabbar Internet Group.