The head of Freeletics is also bringing fitness equipment onto the market for the first time.
(Photo: Freeletics)
Munich It was torture when Arnold Schwarzenegger lifted the weights in the 1970s. The legendary film Pumping Iron shows impressively how the bodybuilders of that time painstakingly steeled their bodies.
Almost half a century later, Daniel Sobhani sets out to bring the iron from the gym into the living room. Above all, the head of the start-up Freeletics wants the athletes to have fun with strength training. The Munich app provider is therefore bringing an electronic system consisting of a console, video camera and networked dumbbells onto the market, with which the athletes should train under supervision.
Many people would not enjoy strength training, says the company director: “That is why we offer a game experience.” The athletes could take part in a game alone or compete against others. New games would also be added all the time.
Freeletics calls the package, which consists of several parts, “Staedium”. The heart of the system is a control unit that is connected to a screen. The software detects via a camera whether the users are doing their exercises correctly. The program criticizes, motivates and encourages further units with the games.
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Freeletics is opening up a new field of business. What the US group Peloton is at home for bike training, the Bavarians want to be in weight training in their own four walls. Like the Americans, Sobhani will not only sell the equipment himself. Those who buy “Staedium” also need a subscription for 29.99 euros per month. The electronics, the dumbbells and a training bench provided cost 2490 euros.
Four billion dollars in sales
This concept works at Peloton: the company is worth $ 27 billion on the floor. The share price has quadrupled since the IPO a good two years ago. In the most recent fiscal year, which ended June 30th, sales doubled to $ 4 billion – with a loss of $ 189 million.
Sobhani is now venturing into territory unknown to Freeletics. So far, the company and its 170 employees have made a living from a fitness app with which athletes can be coached individually. To do this, the company, founded in 2013, uses artificial intelligence that adapts to the demands of athletes. At the same time, users can express their own wishes, which the program then takes into account.
The basic version of the app is free. If you want to use all offers, you have to take out a subscription. According to Freeletics, it achieved sales of 45 million dollars last year, 40 percent more than in 2019.
Hundreds of sports apps are fighting for consumer favor. Many have specialized: Strava for runners and cyclists, Komoot for hikers and cyclists. Freeletics sees itself as a fitness trainer for the living room and, according to the company, has more than 50 million active users.
Most recently, Sobhani raised $ 25 million from venture capital firms last year. With Jazz Venture Partners and Causeway Media Partners, two previous donors were there again. Then there was the Czech financial investor KKCG. Two years earlier, the private equity houses had transferred 45 million. Freeletics does not provide any information about the evaluation, it is in the three-digit million range.
With new equipment, Freeletics wants to make strength training more fun in your own living room.
(Photo: Freeletics)
Freeletics is planning the next round of financing
The big deals in this field were a few years ago. In the middle of the last decade, the sporting goods manufacturer Under Armor spent around three quarters of a billion dollars on three fitness apps. Competitor Adidas swallowed the app provider Runtastic six years ago for a good 200 million euros. The takeovers have not paid off. Adidas has since incorporated Runtastic and pushed the name of the start-up into the background. Under Armor sold MyFitnessPal and discontinued Endomondo.
But that’s not all: The fitness equipment provider iFit recently put its IPO on hold. The American company justified the decision.
Sobhani plans to send out the first “Staedium” packs in the coming spring. “In 2021, it will be time for strength training to go from repetitive and boring to intelligent and addicting,” he says. Sobhani would like to sell up to 10,000 pieces in the first year. “That will be a second big pillar for us,” the manager hopes. However, the expansion devours a lot of money. Therefore, the next round of financing is on the agenda in 2022.
More: Egym raises another $ 41 million despite the crisis in the gym