Catalyst Romania, the leading private equity growth and venture capital fund dedicated to Romania, has announced that its portfolio company Vector Watch has been acquired by Fitbit. Catalyst Romania invested in Vector Watch in 2015 and provided hands on support in Company’s development.
Launched by Andreai Pitis, Founder and CTO, Vector Watch combined engineering talent in Romania with business savviness of former executives such as Joe Santana (former CEO of Timex), Steve Jarvis (former creative lead on Nike Fuelband) and Ron Spencer (former COO of Bulova and Fossil watches).
The Company raised $12 million in VC funding and focused on building an e-ink LCD screen smartwatch with a bespoke operating system and 30-day battery life. The Company also developed a control app that worked across iOS, Android and Windows phones.
Vector Watch announced the acquisition with the following statement on their website:
“The magical smartwatch with 30-days battery life”, “luxurious design”, “elegant timepiece”, “stylish product with a tech spin”. These are just a few ways in which you, our customers, have referred to Vector Watch since our launch in 2015. Time has passed and thanks to your constant feedback and suggestions we have managed to update and increase the value of our product constantly.
Today, we are happy to announce that the Vector Watch team and our software platform are joining Fitbit, the leader in the connected health and fitness market! We believe this is an important milestone as a moment when we will start building other new and amazing products, features and experiences, incorporating our unique technology and knowhow with Fitbit’s experience and global community.
Our aim is to make our integration in the Fitbit family as seamless as possible with no impact on you, our customers. Our smartwatches will maintain functionalities and features. You will continue to enjoy the Vector Watch experience: a 30-day battery life smartwatch, with customizable watch-faces and dedicated streams. However, new product features (software and hardware) will not be added.
Our customer support team will continue to respond to your needs and questions regarding the Vector Watch product by using the same channels as before: a dedicated Help Page and support@vectorwatch.com. Moreover, all warranty or other hardware specific queries will continue to be addressed by the Vector Watch support team.
It has been an impressive journey and we thank you all for your enthusiasm and dedication to our product. From the start, we have unceasingly strived to offer an elegant and efficient smartwatch and staying true to our credo: create a timepiece that will give you time for what truly matters. And we could not have done it without you!
Thank you for such a great experience, from which we have learned so much, and looking forward to our future together!
– the Vector Watch Team”
About Catalyst Romania
Catalyst Romania is the first private equity and venture capital fund designed for Romania. Initially sponsored by 3TS Capital Partners, one of the leading private equity and venture capital firms in Europe, Catalyst Romania is mainly funded by the European Investment Fund (EIF), through the JEREMIE initiative, co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund. Catalyst Romania is currently managed by a local team based in Romania and aims to make early stage venture capital investments in Romanian SMEs from the Technology, Media and Telecom sectors, with investments in the range of €200,000 up to €2,000,000.