Smart clothing maker Athos (Mad Apparel, Inc.) has raised $35.5 million Series C in a round led by Social Capital that included MAS Holdings, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Felix Capital, as well as previous investors DMC and Joe Lacob.

Founded in 2012 Athos offers smart wearable technology that track your muscle groups, heart rate, breathing level and more from the within the clothing itself versus traditional fitness bands and similar devices.

Despite announcing its first product back in 2013, the company only brought to market its first product 6 months ago and has since that time said to have gained “notable traction” for its smart training apparel.

Athos’ clothing measures muscle performance using EMG (electromyography), as well as heart rate and acceleration, with the data streamed to the user’s mobile device; the app itself delivers simple, actionable insights to help users reach whatever fitness goal they are currently pursuing, or put more formally “Athos’ insights allow users to set benchmarks and track progress, helping people of all fitness levels to get the most out of their training and accomplish their goals more effectively.”

“We are seeing great demand from people looking for technology that will help improve their fitness,” Social Capital Founder and Managing Partner Chamath Palihapitiya said in a statement. “Athos is on the forefront of this trend, delivering simple yet powerful insights that help people get more out of their workouts. It’s exciting to see strong momentum and an ambitious roadmap that will continue to transform the fitness industry.”

The future

While smart fitness bands and even (be it with limited success) smart watches have changed the way people work out it could be argued that external peripheral devices may simply be the first generation of a move towards a truly Internet of Things (IoT) connected world where anything and everything is connected to the web; clothing should be no exception to that vision and this is the market Athos is tapping into.

It has been a little slow to market, and it needs to eventually offer more than its core product, but considering reviews and feedback online it would seem to be heading in the right direction.

Including the new round, Athos has raised $50.7 million to-date.

The company said it would use the new funds to continue to drive innovation in wearable fitness technology, scale to support increasing consumer demand and grow its headcount.

Image credit: screenshot/ Athos