Wearable technology has gained an investor in Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony

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The professional basketball player is now becoming a venture capitalist behind wearables.

New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony has recently entered into the wearable technology ecosystem beyond simply being a wearer of one of the many forms of device that are already entering this sector of the mobile marketplace.

The idea to become a venture capitalist for wearables struck him during one of his practices last season.

It was at the time that the sports celebrity first became interested in the complex sensors that had recently started to be worn by the athletes in order to be able to track their performance. This, according to a former NBC executive, Stuart Goldfarb, who is one of Carmelo Anthony’s friends. Goldfarb explained that at the time, wearable technology of that sort – such as those made by Australia’s Catapult Sports – had not yet become widely available to consumers.

That said, the wearable technology category has been exploding with releases since then, beyond health and fitness.

smartwatch wearable technologyEverything from smartwatches to head mounted displays and from glasses to jewelry have started to be released by dozens of different wearables and electronics companies for everything from wellness to personal organization. Goldfarb explained that at the time, Anthony knew that “Sensors were bound get much better and had the ability to disrupt the whole health care system.” That said, in order to ensure that they work effectively and that people would actually want them, they needed to become “lifestyle-type products.” It was in that area that Goldfarb and Anthony were interested in taking part.

The result was that the two men worked together in a venture capital partnership that they have now unveiled to the public. Named M7 Tech Partners, the goals of this partnership do extend beyond wearables, with the intention to make investments into forms of digital media, as well as other types of consumer tech companies.

The first investment that M7 has made is in a startup business that produces storytelling apps for children, called Hullabalu. At the time that this article was written, the size of that investment had not been revealed. As was the case with wearable technology, it was inspiration from Anthony’s personal life – his young son – that drew him to that particular company.

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