Weight Watchers acquires digital fitness startup Wello

After constant rumours spreading for a couple of week, it was finally confirmed yesterday that startup Wello will be acquired by weight management chain Weight Watchers. Wello, the startup that connects people with personal trainers to receive private fitness consultations through online video chat, has been a target of Weight Watchers for some time as they aim to become more active in the digital weight loss market.

The fee, which Wello was acquired for, remains undisclosed however the company is definitely not considered to be a small player considering it had raised more than $1 million in seed funding since mid 2012 and extended the product lineup from one-to-one video chat to included groups and gym-like monthly membership schemes.

According to Dan Crowe, CTO, Weight Watchers, the company has worked on a 12-month plan in order to get them up to speed with the latest digital fitness technologies, which he admitted they had been slow to catch onto. Being based in New York as well, it allows Weight Watchers to have a strong grip on that sector of the market, and Wello gives the organisation an opportunity to try and clamp a firm grip on California and Silicon Valley helping Crowe to place Weight Watchers as a strong player in the API economy.

The last time Weight Watchers moved on a digital device it was a Philips product called ActiveLink, which it incorporated into the core of it’s weight loss tools and sold more than 400,000 units accumulating for about 10 percent of its member base.