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Fitbit Acquired Fitstar For $17.8 Million (Updated)

This article is more than 8 years old.

This story has updated significantly to reflect that Fitbit did not raise a new round of venture capital, according to a Fitbit spokeswoman. The SEC filing documents the acquisition of Fitstar from several weeks ago, said the spokeswoman.

Fitbit, the maker of fitness tracking wearable devices and related gadgets, paid $17.8 million to acquire Fitstar, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Fitbit last raised money in August 2013, in a $43 million Series D from Qualcomm Ventures, SoftBank Capital and SAP Ventures. Before this latest round, Fitbit had raised a total of $66 million, according to CrunchBase.

The company's valuation in the new investment could not be learned.

The company did not immediately return calls for comment. (Update: A Fitbit spokeswoman told VentureBeat that the cash was used for the acquisition of Fitstar, an app that creates custom exercise routines.)

While Fitbit pioneered the wearable device market, it is facing increasing competition, including from  Apple  which next month will begin selling its much anticipated Apple Watch. Many industry watchers expect Apple's smartwatch to bring the category outside of a niche consumer product and into the mainstream.

Fitbit recently introduced two new wearables, the Charge HR and the Fitbit Surge. Unlike earlier models, which were strictly fitness devices, the Surge has the functionality of smartwatch with a screen for receiving notifications from a companion smartphone. It also has constant heart-rate monitoring and an advertised battery life of seven days–compared with only 18 hours for the Apple Watch.

In December, Bloomberg reported that Fitbit plans to go public this year in an offering to be led by Morgan Stanley .

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