Ringly Raises $5 Million To Bring Fashion to Wearables

Smart jewelry startup Ringly has raised $5.1 million from a Series A funding round. The company announced this funding in a blog post on Medium, written by founder and CEO Christina Mercando.

The funding was led by Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capitalist firm in Silicon Valley. It follows a seed round that raised $1 million. According to Upstart Business Journal, this funding will be used to increase manufacturing, add more product lines, and expand distribution.

Ringly started when Mercando was “simply tired of worrying where my phone was — at dinner, meetings, parties, drives, picnics, hikes, everywhere — for fear I’d miss something important.” She noticed that men typical kept their phones on their person, usually in pockets. She kept her phone in her purse and began to wonder how she could be notified of important matters without constantly having her phone with her.

Ringly’s mobile app as seen on iOS.
Source: Ringly.

Right now, Ringly has one product: it’s a fashionable ring that lights up and vibrates when it receives a notification. Ringly users can customized their notifications to their liking. The ring comes in four styles with different colors of semi-precious stones on a matte gold-plated base.

In her blog post, Mercando was wary to call Ringly a “wearable” company because of its focus on fashion. “It is our belief that wearables should be designed to fit both your life and your style,” she said.

Ringly began delivering their products in December 2014 via Ringly.com and has distribution deals in place with Shopbop in February and Bloomingdales’s online store in March. Per Mercando, the product will be offered in more stores in 2015.

Ringly will be added to the Wearables.com Database soon!

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