UK wearable technology companies are developing much more than fitness trackers. From remote patient monitoring to sports performance and miniature sensors, wearables are increasingly used in healthcare and industry.
Wearable technology has moved on from step counters. UK companies are building clinical-grade monitors, athlete performance trackers, and medical devices worn instead of taken. Using Beauhurst data, we’ve ranked 50 UK-headquartered wearable technology companies by the total equity funding they have raised.
Together, the companies in our wider analysis have raised £1.44b across 352 equity rounds.
This is not a ranking of the UK’s biggest consumer gadget brands. Instead, it shows which companies building body-worn technology have attracted the most equity investment.
The UK wearable technology sector
A wearable is any device worn on the body that senses, records, or acts on what it finds.
In the UK, most of these companies are medical rather than consumer. Medical devices and sensors each tag 19 of the 53 companies in the cohort, and healthcare products a further ten.
The companies in our analysis fall into three broad groups:
- Clinical and medical wearables: Devices that monitor vital signs, diagnose conditions, or deliver treatment, usually sold to health systems rather than individuals.
- Sport and performance: Athlete tracking, injury prevention, and training analysis for teams and amateurs.
- Components and enabling technology: The chips, sensors, optics, and materials that make small body-worn devices possible.
There are 53 companies in the wider cohort today, compared with 24 at the end of 2015. That is growth of 121% over the decade.
The cohort is small and mid-stage. Some 20 companies are at venture stage and 17 at growth, with ten established and none at seed. Four have exited, one is recorded as dead, and one as a zombie.
New company formation has stopped. Eight companies in the cohort were founded in 2017, against one in each of 2022 and 2023, and none since.
Wearable technology funding in the UK
Across the companies in our analysis, total equity funding stands at £1.44b across 352 equity rounds.
Nexeon leads the ranking with £324m. It is a battery materials company rather than a wearables business, appearing in the cohort because its silicon anode technology is used in wearable devices.
Plessey Semiconductors follows with £73.0m in microLED displays, ahead of Sava (£57.0m) in stress monitoring, Doccla (£56.7m) in virtual hospital wards, and Current Health (£54.1m) in remote patient monitoring.
Nexeon alone accounts for 23% of the sector total. Excluding it, the remaining companies have raised £1.11b, and no individual company has raised more than £73m.
That makes this a sector of small companies. The top five account for 39% of the total and the top 10 for 54%, but below the leader almost everything sits in single-digit or low double-digit millions.
Revenue is similarly modest. WaveOptics reported £84.1m in its latest accounts, followed by Plessey Semiconductors at £54.7m, Buddi at £49.7m, and STATSports at £21.1m.
Who invests in UK wearable technology companies?
Wearables are funded by angel networks and regional public money rather than institutional venture capital.
ACF Investors, Crowdcube, and SyndicateRoom have each backed 11 rounds, followed by Equity Gap on nine, and the Future Fund, Par Equity, and Scottish Enterprise on eight each.
Three of those are Scottish or Scotland-focused, which reflects an unusually strong cluster around Edinburgh and Glasgow.
By value the largest participants are corporate and sovereign investors, including Honda Xcelerator Ventures, Korea Development Bank, and the National Wealth Fund at £100m each, all through participation in the same large financing.
Where are the UK’s wearable technology companies?
Wearables are more evenly distributed than most technology sectors, and London holds a smaller share than usual.
Scotland is unusually well represented, with Current Health, PlayerData, Shot Scope, Nanusens, and Lustre ClearSkin in the east and Neuranics in the west.
Northern Ireland is also strong for a nation of its size, home to B-Secur, STATSports, Intelesens, and Neurovalens.
The East of England contributes a cluster of Cambridge component companies, including Forefront RF, FlexEnable, Focal Point Positioning, and Cambridge Medical Technologies.
