BIDS.L Regulatory News (BIDS)

Fitbug Holdings Plc / Epic: FITB.L / Index: AIM / Sector: Leisure

21 October 2013

Fitbug Holdings Plc ('Fitbug' or 'the Company')

Commercial Launch of Fitbug Orb Establishes Leadership Position in Fast Growing 'Wearables' Market

Fitbug Holdings Plc, the AIM traded provider of online personal health and well-being services, is pleased to announce the commercial launch of 'Fitbug Orb', an innovative, Bluetooth Smart, wireless activity and sleep tracker. With a unique choice of wear options and colours, Fitbug's proprietary digital health coaching service, "KiK", at a US price of US$49.95 (GBP£45), establishes a clear leadership position on value, wearability and personalised service.

The Fitbug Orb complements the Company's established portfolio of fully integrated connected health products, as Fitbug continues to increase its presence in the fast growing global Digital Health and Wearables Market. In a new assessment of the mobile healthcare market, ABI Research finds wearable device revenue will grow to exceed US$6 billion in 2018, with Activity Trackers forecast to grow at 40% compound annual growth rate ('CAGR') over the next five years (https://www.abiresearch.com/press/led-by-the-sports-fitness-and-wellness-segment-wea).

Using the Bluetooth Smart wireless protocol, Fitbug Orb offers seamless, wireless connectivity to the latest generation of both Apple iOS and Android mobile devices such as the iPhone range, Samsung Galaxy S4/S4 Mini, and Bluetooth 4.0-enabled tablets including the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0, the new iPad and the recently updated iPod Touch. For those without a compatible device a dongle solution is also available. This connectivity provides customers with instant access to their personalised health and wellness programme and Fitbug's motivational tools anywhere and at anytime. Activity levels and sleep patterns can be seamlessly uploaded and monitored without the need for cables, receivers or constant computer access, whilst KiK, a proprietary digital coach, helps people set, monitor and where necessary actually prompts them to act, to achieve goals. Additionally, the low energy nature of the technology enables months of continuous usage, eliminating the regular need to recharge or replace the battery. 

Paul Landau, Fitbug Chief Executive said, "I am delighted to announce the launch of the Fitbug Orb, without doubt our most significant product development to date. Wearable tracking technology is one of the biggest health trends of the year and Fitbug is looking to help make it available to a broader audience and encourage expansion to a more mainstream mass-adoption market. I believe high prices have to date constrained market growth. The Fitbug Orb tackles that - at a sub US$50 price the feature rich Orb offers exceptional value compared to competitor products in the US$130-150 range from Jawbone and Nike. With an established and growing presence in the US, recent expansion into new markets and a competitive range of connected health products, I believe we are well placed for solid growth".

Further Information

About Fitbug Orb

The discreet button-sized Fitbug Orb can be worn in different ways to suit individual styles or social settings. Whether placed on the belt, wrist, or lanyard, or clipped on or beneath clothing, the small sophisticated device tracks a wealth of information including, steps, aerobic steps/time, distance, calories burned, speed and even sleep. The Bluetooth Smart Orb then syncs this information to mobile devices and the KiK digital coaching platform.

KiK enables Fitbug to set, track and manage personalised weekly nutrition and activity based targets, to help users maintain motivation. The technology has been designed by nutritionists and sports scientists to calculate realistic weekly targets for users; when KiK sees a user is performing well it sends regular feedback, advice and encouragement via emails and smartphone alerts. KiK provides personalised weekly targets based on users' insights and daily health trends. 

Features of the new Fitbug Orb include:

· Tracking of steps, aerobic steps/time, distance, calories burned, speed and sleep

· Free Fitbug app (iOS and Samsung Galaxy S4 Android smartphones)

· Dongle option available for users without a compatible Smartphone or tablet 

· KiK, a personalised digital coaching technology that calculates goals on personalised pages and nudges users with feedback, advice and encouragement via emails and smart phone alerts

· Multiple wear options, such as a wristband, belt hook and underwear clip

· Multiple sync options, including Push, Beacon and Stream

· Three eye-catching colour options, including white, pink and black

· No need for re-charging with batteries lasting for up to six months

· Connectivity to other leading apps including MyFitnessPal and Aetna Carepass

In addition, the Fitbug Orb comes with membership to the Fitbug health community, which gives further access to food logging and progress tracking, plus a host of healthy recipes, wellbeing content, online games, advice from resident experts as well as the hottest wellness topics in the weekly Bugzine newsletter. More on www.fitbug.com

**ENDS**

For further information contact:

About Fitbug

Fitbug is a leading provider of online health and well-being services to help individuals to improve their lifestyles by making realistic changes to their daily routine. The Fitbug portfolio includes the Fitbug Orb (US$49.95), Fitbug Go (US$49.95), Fitbug Air (US$49.95) and Fitbug Wow scales (US$79.95).

Key market sectors include health insurance and rewards providers, workplace health programmes, fitness operators and consumers. Increasingly, Fitbug's platform acts as the driving force behind third party services such as white label sites, activity driven games and challenge microsites and rewards programmes. The Company's main focus is now on building strategic partnerships with organisations, which can integrate Fitbug into their own service/product offerings or resell to their customer base. The United States is a key market for the Company, and it is also focussed on expanding its global presence, as evidenced by its expansion into Singapore in August 2013 and Australia in September 2013, two markets recognised to have strong growth potential for the Connected Health Market.

The Fitbug business was founded by Paul Landau, CEO of Fitbug Limited. Fergus Kee, Executive Chairman of the Company is the former Managing Director of Bupa's £2.1 billion UK and North American Division.