Getting healthy is big business these days. Now a startup that’s come up with a unique approach leveraging tech to help people with their exercise regimes is announcing a big round of funding, putting some weight behind its own push for growth. Munich-based EGYM — a maker of connected fitness equipment and personalized training tech that has also built out a fitness marketplace between gyms and corporate wellness programs — has closed a Series G round of just over $200 million from L Catterton and Meritech, both new backers of the startup.
The funding is coming in at a post-money valuation of more than $1.2 billion, CEO and founder Philipp Roesch-Schlanderer confirmed to TechCrunch in an interview, and it will be used in a couple of key areas. The company wants to drive more business in its newest markets, the U.
K. and the U.S.
, where it has respectively acquired two smaller companies, Hussle and FitReserve. It also wants to continue building out an AI-based assistant, called Genius, that it launched earlier this year. Despite the hype around AI, Genius is no AI gimmick, Roesch-Schlanderer said.
“I don’t really have an opinion about the broader AI world, but what I can tell you is, in our field, it adds huge value to making sure that people have always the best possible workout at their fingertips based on past success, their behaviors, their goals.” Only around 10% of gym goers have access to personal trainers, making the AI trainer a practical alternative, he ad.