Mark Cullen looks at how Whoop, the wearable technology beloved by athletes, achieved its $10.1bn valuation and plans to create 90 new Irish jobs.
What started from humble beginnings of a student athlete wanting to track his levels of activity to avoid the constant risk of overtraining has grown into one of the biggest wearables companies of our time with a recent Series G funding round of $575m at a $10.1bn valuation.
Founder Will Ahmed was interested in sports performance long before the days of Whoop. However, he found that having a medium of tracking performance was always an issue. He also wanted to avoid the issues of burnout and under performance as a result of pushing too hard.
“With more than 2.5 million users as of early 2026 the direction of this company will be one to definitely keep an eye on”
This idea sparked the light for Whoop. Whoop is a Boston‑based wearable technology and subscription health platform founded in 2012 by Ahmed, a former Harvard student athlete.
Maximising human health span
The interesting side of their approach is that they view themselves as not just a smartwatch maker but more in the area of “human performance and human health span”.
Health span is about maximising years lived without chronic illness, injury, or functional decline not simply extending life at any cost.
Through their screenless device they encourage users not to focus on the data in real time, but with what happens over time and believe that the metrics being readily available on a screen can impact our thinking often leading to overtraining or pushing through fatigue.
The idea of recovery is incorporated into the Whoop idea with the user getting a recovery score each day based off a number of metrics but heavily weighted around HRV (heart rate variability), which is essentially your body’s ability to handle stress put on it and resting heart rate.
These two metrics can be hugely impacted by sleep, hydration and alcohol consumption which Ahmed states himself is an area that users when first interacting with the wearable realise has a much larger effect on our bodies than first imagined.
In terms of their recent raise and valuation this brings with it positive news for the Irish economy.
Whoop has confirmed that 90 new jobs will be created in Ireland by the end of the year as a result of this new funding and Will Ahmed has said it will most likely be the final round of private funding with him also referencing that they are cash flow positive which is uncommon for Whoop’s stage and scale.
Having collaborated with many top elite athletes on its journey, they have won credibility with the public as well as athletes such as Lebron James and Cristiano Ronaldo who wear the product and see it as a benefit to their performance.
The general public can definitely use it as a tool to achieve their goals. Along with working with elite athletes they have also been investors with the likes of Rory McIlroy, Virgil van Dijk, Cristiano Ronaldo and Shane Lowry having participated in the Series G funding round.
Michael Phelps was an early investor and from his achievements there is no doubt he has optimised his performance over the years.
By announcing its bookings run rate as $1.1bn this shows credibility for long term investors and predictability of revenue. With more than 2.5 million users as of early 2026 the direction of this company will be one to definitely keep an eye on.
As a user of Whoop myself for over two years, I really enjoyed the concept of blocking out the recovery score on days that you needed a big performance and the app allows this feature by blanking the recovery score until you enable it once again in order to remove the mental affect seeing a negative recovery score may have.
This is another benefit of no screen as it is a lot easier to avoid than if the data was appearing directly on your wrist. The idea is that it can be worn 24/7 and have accurate data readings due to the constant feedback it is receiving.
Ahmed targeted elite athletes and professional sports teams instead of mass consumers, using credibility at the top end of sport to build the brand before scaling.
Whoop also operates a very informative podcast where they interview athletes regarding their training involving Whoop and how they use this to maximise their performance and recovery on a daily basis. Rory McIroy was one of his guests during 2025 reflecting on his Master’s win.
This is an interesting approach but one that has led the company to where it is today with some of those early athlete adopters becoming shareholders further down the line.
Top image: Photo by Jen Shish on Unsplash
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