Withings to relaunch later this year, focus on preventive health

Nokia unsuccessful foray into the digital health space has officially come to close.

On Thursday, the company completed the sale of its digital health division to Éric Carreel, the former chairman and co-founder of consumer health brand Withings.

Nokia acquired Withings in 2016 for $191 million. The startup went on to form the core of Nokia’s digital health initiatives after it was rebranded as Nokia Digital Health. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, though as part of the deal, 200 employees are moving to Withings from Nokia. Carreel says he plans to officially relaunch Withings by the end of the year. He also added the the company’s new focus will be on preventive health.

“I am delighted to start working again with the brilliant teams that made the brand such a great success” said Carreel in a statement. “We have an exciting challenge ahead of us as we continue to push the boundaries of connected health.”

“We are still only just starting to discover what connected health can really bring to people,” He went on to add. “From now on we must concentrate our efforts on developing tools capable of advanced measurements and the associated services that can help prevent chronic health conditions. Today’s technologies allow us to imagine solutions that have the potential to benefit the lives of millions of people, and our ambition is to ensure that we, as Withings, lead the way with technological advances and intuitive designs.”

At one point, both Google and Samsung were reportedly involved in bidding to acquire Nokia Digital Health. However, according to multiple French publications (Withings was based in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France), the French government favoured a local buyer over international firms like Google.

Source: Nokia Via: TechCrunch