Following a very successful showing at CES that saw them receive a coveted Innovation Award for the 2nd year in a row, Cityzen CEO Jean-Luc Errant says that initial plans to raise a €20 Million round have skyrocketed due to investor interest to what may be a €100 million round. According to Bloomberg, the startup, which specializes in smart fabrics, signed a deal with clothing company Asics in 2014, licensing their in-seam sensor technology and software platform to the clothing maker in order for them to develop “D-Shirts”, as Errant calls them (the “D” is for Digital, referring to the technology inside them).
The startup, of course, still needs to convert investor interest into a definitive investment, and they’ll have to do that with competitors like OMSignal creeping up on them. The Canadian startup proudly announced a partnership with Ralph Lauren bringing its own smart shirt technology to the US Open last August.
Still, Cityzen has got a lot of advantages going for them. In addition to the Asics deal, which it announced just last November, the startup says it also plans to create new revenue lines by selling its data analysis tools to provide deep health analytics for its clients end-users.
“It’s great knowing how many steps you’ve walked today and how fast your heart is beating, but really — who cares?” – Jean-Luc Errant, Cityzen
The company is expanding in the sports industry, but has not ruled out other industries such as healthcare.