Witworks, a Bengaluru-based consumer technology startup today announced that is has secured an undisclosed amount of seed funding, led by Fireside Ventures and Investopad. It also saw participation from from P39 Capital along with a host of other investors, including Anupam Mittal(founder, Shaadi.com), Pranay Jivrajka(COO, Ola Cabs), Maninder Gulati and Abhinav Sinha of OYO Rooms, among others.
The company plans to use the freshly infused funds for the development and launch of its first-ever wrist-wearable device called ‘Blink‘. It has been described as the most advanced, intuitive and beautiful piece of wearable technology on the company’s website.
Witworks has not only developed the hardware, but also tweaked the software according to their needs. The Blink smartwatch runs on a bloated version of Android Wear 2.0 called ‘Marvin’ and is voice-enabled. Being a watch-first OS, Marvin has completely re-imagined interactions and gestures for use on a small 1.4-inch display screen.
Commenting on the same, Somnath Meher, co-founder, Witworks, says,
The technology [for Blink] is in place, and there’s enough eagerness amongst consumers. But lack of relevant used case, ease of interaction and genuine design-empathy have prevented them from taking off.
With a blend of technology and design, we are looking to solve that and make smart-wearables ubiquitous.
Meher also adds that the company is expected to debut the device by the end of September, and it will have use cases beyond keeping tabs of notifications and fitness. It is expected to pack of host of new features that have been built from the ground up. In addition, it can be used to make offline payments even without an internet connection.
Also, Blink will be compatible with both Android and iOS alike. It will also not compromise on the fashion quotient and provide you with an option to choose a steel dial with different shades, along with a set of swappable straps.
Workwits aims to bring at least 20,000 units of Blink to the market by December, make it available only through Witworks website and pricing it around $200,
says Meher.
Founded by a trio of IIT Kharagpur alumni Somnath Meher, Ankit DP and Chandrashekhar Iyer in 2014, Witworks is the consumer-facing brand name of its parent Think Innoventions Pvt. Ltd. Pivoting from its previous collaborative initiative for developing ideas into real products, the company is now working on the making connected devices in the home and lifestyle segment.
With a team size of 20, the company is currently operating across India, Hong Kong and Shenzhen in China for the development of its first smartwatch. Post the launch of Blink, it is looking to scale up production while working on its second product.
Witworks also expects to increase the team size five-fold, with major additions to the technology team. And since devices will be manufactured in China, it aims to scale up operations and setup offices and teams in Shenzhen and Hong Kong by next year. With the target of a Rs. 30-40 crore revenue by 2017, it also plans to remain in the market for a Series-A round of funding in the next six to eight months.
