Read This Month’s Headlines
- IFIT Health & Fitness, a health and fitness technology company, raised $355M in funding anchored by L Catterton amid a company-wide restructuring, including layoffs and leadership shakeup.
- F45 Training Increased Q4 2021 Revenue 242% year on year and Full-Year Revenue 63 Percent vs 2020. The company completed the year with record revenues and adjusted EBITDA. It also set a record sales pace of more than 1,000 franchise sales for the full year.
- Viva Leisure has delivered half-year revenue of $34M despite lockdown constraints. They now have 325 locations across five states and territories in Australia and three countries – with another 25 due to open in the next 12 months.
- Global fitness company Virgin Active raised £88.4M ($115.8M) and acquired Real Foods Group, owner of South African healthy restaurant chains Kauai and Nü, for £28.6M ($37.5M).
- Connected rowing startup Aviron secured $18.5M in a Series A round led by Stripes, with participation from Global Founders Capital, Mark Mastrov, and others.
- Clubessential Holdings announces International acquisition of innovatise, the company behind myFitApp. This acquisition strengthens Clubessential Holdings’ product portfolio and international presence sering over 6,000 fitness clubs and 7 million members in 17 countries.
- Connected rowing maker Hydrow added a new $55M investment, bringing its total funding to $255M. This was a Series D round led by Constitution Capital, with participation from L Catterton, Rx3 Growth Partners, and others.
- Really encouraging signs that bricks and mortar is back with Planet Fitness – its member base top pre-pandemic levels and Xponential Fitness increases revenue 45% YoY, to $155M for FY2021, paying members grew 70% and gym visits were up 50% in Q4 compared to Q4 2020.
- Planet Fitness Australia grows! Congratulations Dallas Rosekelly, Tanner Halton, Danielle Monroy and the whole #PFAUS team on cutting the ribbon in Thuringowa (Townsville QLD) at this spectacular club opening.
- Australia’s largest EMS personal training franchise, SpeedFit, continues to expand nationally with its first location opening North Adelaide in April, bringing the total number of open studios to 30.
- Plus Fitness, one of Australia’s leading 24/7 gym franchise networks will undergo a major rebrand across its nearly 200 clubs that will see the franchise revitalise its brand and club design as it enters its next stage of growth.
- Life Fitness Australia has added FITBENCH to its portfolio of premium fitness brands.
- A big congratulations to Allan Kyffin, Brad Flack and Lee White who have recently signed a new Franchise Agreement for Snap Fitness Australia – Birtinya, QLD!
- In Australia, LES MILLS Virtual exceeded growth plans by 5%, achieved new participation records and increased attendance by 26%.Les Mills Asia Pacific have introduced third-party financing options for new AV installations for use with LES MILLS Virtual and/or SMART TECH equipment packages.
- India-based health benefits startup Ekincare has raised $15 M in a Series B funding. The start-up intends to use this fresh funding to help accelerate growth and deliver simplified health benefits and insurance experience to employers.
- Absolute You launched their new AbsoluteX concept with on-demand virtual classes in their studios – no instructor needed, just awesome AV. Absolute You also opened their new store in i12 Katong.
- Core Collective launched their new facility and concept in i12 in Katong this month – best of luck to Michelle and her team
- Levitise opened their new sauna at the new Core Collective at i12 Katong and it was fully booked for both open days! Congrats Alex and team
- UFIT launched their biggest Hub yet! The first to integrate Fitness, Health and Sports in one location Fairmont hotel – Massive congratulations to Chris Hodges and his growing team at UFIT
- Intellect announced their partnership with Grab to launch a new Mental Wellness Program to support the mental health & wellbeing of their drivers, riders, and gig workers, in collaboration with Ngee Ann Polytechnic. Congrats Theodoric and team!
- New space AIBIMaxwell – a new lifestyle destination in the cbd. An inclusive community space with a diverse range of fitness and wellness activities and brands
- Spartans Boxing Club announces their next gym opening in Singapore in May with another to follow shortly afterwards. Also 2 new franchises sold for Melbourne to open by August and September this year. Their third country! Congrats Russ and team!
- Fire Fitness launches into Dubai – congrats to Nad and the team!
Singapore is bidding to host the World Athletics Championships in 2025, Sport - Singapore (SportSG) announced on Thursday (Mar 17). If successful, this would be the first time the championships will be held in Southeast Asia. Previous hosts of the event include London, Beijing and Moscow.
- We send our love and best wishes to all the health, fitness and wellness businesses in China and Hong Kong. Current lockdowns mean many businesses remain shut and have been shut now for weeks, even months. We hope for a speedy solution.
- Ritual started their training program with a web-based training platform called Ritual Academy with their partners in Shanghai, where they’re slated to open a couple of months from now.
- ISSA’s Taiwan partner, Life Designer School, now have a full team of instructors ready to teach the ISSA Certified Personal Trainer Course
- Taiwanese workplace digital health platform H2U scores $8M in funding. With its AI-powered platform, H2U delivers subscription-based personalised health services and products to employees.
Anantara is expanding its China portfolio with plans for retreat in ecotourism destination Anji Countym, a nature haven, opening is slated for Q4 2024.
- Evolution Wellness Group has officially partnered with CloudFit. Initial roll out will see CloudFit technology inside EW’s new and exciting franchised business model FIRE FIT
- FIRE FIT has secured an agreement with a fantastic partner in Oman – Horizon Fitness. In addition to their full suite of boutique offerings, they will be bringing something new and ground-breaking to this space and the Oman fitness market…watch this space!
- TRIB3 has secured an exclusive ten-store franchise area development deal for Greece and Cyprus. This news means more than 70 TRIB3 stores have now been secured across ten international territories!
- Gympass has signed a partnership deal with Les Mills to make the fitness platform’s 1,500 on-demand workouts and virtual training sessions available to Gympass corporate clients.
- Myzone has announced a partnership with workforce wellness platform Wellonomics. The partnership will see Myzone becoming available as a bespoke company-wide solution for Wellonomics clients by integrating into the Wellonomics app.
Myzone expands into Pakistan with Sporta distribution partners. Besides distributing products, the launch will also see Myzone installed into the new TriFit brand of clubs as they launch in the country in early 2022 - Snap Fitness received the Best Fitness Franchise award at the International Franchising Association’s Annual Convention in San Diego. Congrat Ty Menzies and team!
- Lesmills hosted their Les Mills International leaderSHIFT event in Dubai. Leaders from their global markets all over the world flew in for our first in person get together in over two years!
Glofox announced their plans to hire 150 new employees throughout 2022, bringing their headcount to 350. This follows on the back of continued strong growth with the team doubling in size to 200 in 2021.
- Wexer is launching an exciting new feature Virtual Connect – FREE to all Wexer Virtual customers – that allows you to bring your own in-house superstars to the big screen of your virtual studio.
- Think of all that great content you’ve been sharing with members at home ever since lockdown hit. Virtual Connect allows you to bring it in-club too, in an immersive big screen experience that ensures your star trainers sit at the heart of your entire GX offering, all day, everyday.
