The Middle East is a strong growth market for wearable fitness tracker company Whoop, particularly among women, a senior official at the company has said.
Dr Ami Bhatt, who joined Whoop as its first chief medical officer in July, said she was encouraged to see that more women across the region were turning to the company's devices as a way to better understand their health.
"Across the GCC, female member growth has increased more than 90 per cent year-over-year, with strong growth across every market we track," she told The National.
Her comments about the Middle East echo the sentiments of Whoop's Egyptian-American chief executive Will Ahmed, who last month said the fitness-tracker company would open a second office in the UAE, calling the move "critical for growth".
In March, Whoop announced $575 million in funding from a group of international investors led by Abu Dhabi and Qatari sovereign wealth funds.
The Series G round was led by three Gulf investors: Mubadala Investment Company, 2PointZero Group and the Qatar Investment Authority.
Dr Bhatt arrived at Whoop after serving as chairwoman of the US Food and Drug Administration's digital health advisory committee from 2024 to 2026. Before that, she spent almost five years as the American College of Cardiology's chief innovation officer.
She said she has tried out most wearables, "even ones most people haven’t heard about". Thanks to all that product testing, she is well aware of how the devices can help people, and what motivates them to keep wearing them.
Artificial intelligence has provided new opportunities for health tracking wearable devices. "I found my way to Whoop because the combination of its rigorous continuous data evaluation and world class leading AI meant that it knew me, I had not found that yet in other wearables," she said.
Whoop, Dr Bhatt said, understands how women are driving a good portion of the company's growth and the company is working on new ways for women to learn more about their health.
Whoop last month partnered with Natural Cycles, which has made a non-hormonal birth control and fertility tracking app.
The integration with Natural Cycles brings together continuous physiological data from Whoop with "clinically validated fertility insights from Natural Cycles", she said. Compatible Whoop devices automatically share overnight skin temperature with the Natural Cycles app, which she said helped to determine daily fertility status.
"The integration helps eligible Whoop members better understand how reproductive health connects with sleep, recovery and overall well-being, bringing those different parts of their health into a more connected picture," Dr Bhatt said. The feature "reflects a broader shift towards more personalised, connected, evidence-based approaches to women's health", she added.
Dr Bhatt said trackers such as Whoop devices help women to better understand their bodies.
"It helps advocate for their health and make decisions that are right for them," she said. "We see particularly strong engagement with women's health features across the GCC."
She added that menstruation is the second-most frequently logged behaviour among Whoop members in the region.
She said Whoop continued to invest in research related to every major stage of women’s physiology "from menstrual cycles, pregnancy and continuous investment in women-specific algorithms to menopause and strength training and elite female performance". Unlike many competing fitness trackers and wearables, Whoop's business model revolves around yearly subscription plans.
The company launched in 2012 amid a crowded wearable technology market and has grown steadily, amassing a loyal following, particularly among professional athletes.
Dr Bhatt said women were a major driver of Whoop's success and growth.
"Women are one of the fastest-growing groups within our member community, and that growth reflects the investments we've made in research, product innovation, and partnerships designed around women's health," she said. "Over the past year, global membership among women has more than doubled, growing faster than membership among men."
She added that women now make up about one in four new Whoop members. She was particularly proud that the growth driven largely by women was diverse in terms of age groups.
"Membership among women aged 40 and older has tripled since January 2025, and our fastest-growing groups are women over 60 and women under 20, up 138 and 131 per cent year-on-year, respectively," Dr Bhatt said.
