Health and fitness training is not for many with FitBudd

How can health and fitness coaches reach a wider market to keep costs down and help more people live healthier lives? Software-as-a-service startup FitBuddAnnouncing a $3.4 million seed fund today, he thinks he has the answer. Its platform provides a way for coaches and their clients to work together better than ever before.

FitBudd was born from the personal experience of the business’s CEO, Samya Mittal, and its co-founders, Pranav Chaturvedi and Naman Singhal. “After I had my son, I was trying to get back in shape, but I wasn’t getting the results I wanted until I started working with a personal trainer,” recalls Mittal. “It made me realize how important it is to have someone who keeps you on your toes and holds you accountable.”

The unusual thing about Mittal’s coach is that he is based in America, while Mittal herself lives in India. The relationship took place entirely online – and Mittal and her co-founders had their eureka moment. “Having a personal trainer makes all the difference in terms of results, but most people can’t afford or have access to this option,” she says. We started talking to coaches because we could help them solve the problem.

FitBudd is the culmination of those conversations. Health and fitness coaches based anywhere in the world can subscribe to the platform by paying a monthly subscription fee. It provides them with capabilities such as customer relationship management, payment systems, analytics and video calling so they can run their businesses. Suddenly, they can serve a global client base, offering private face-to-face sessions on the platform and additional materials such as workout guides and nutrition plans that clients can download at their leisure. The platform connects to clients’ fitness devices so trainers can track how they’re doing.

FitBudd’s vision is a space where trainers can capture and manage more customers than ever before, and grow their business – and their earnings – much faster. This will allow them to lower their fees, making personal training more accessible – Mittal believes trainers using the platform should be able to offer their services at around a fifth of the cost of traditional training.

“We are using technology to democratize health and fitness training,” Mittal said. “We want to help coaches grow their businesses and provide life-changing help to more people.” While people who strive for health and fitness goals on their own are often disappointed, research shows that more than 70% of those who join a personal trainer are able to achieve their goals.

It’s early days for FitBudd, which launched just over a year ago, but the progress so far has been encouraging. The platform has already registered more than 1,000 coaches in 20 countries around the world, and revenues have increased 10-fold in the first months of trading. The goal is to hit $5 million in recurring revenue in the next 18 months.

Today’s seed round should help the business achieve its goal. FitBudd has raised $3.6 million from Accel India, Beenext, Sequoia Capital India and Waveform Ventures, with the funds earmarked for further product development and customer acquisition.

“There is a clear shift in the fitness and wellness industry to ‘solopreneurs’ leaving institutions and building their own digital and hybrid businesses,” said Manasi Shah, Vice President of Asil. “FitBudd is accelerating the success of these solopreneurs while providing personalization for end users.”

Mittal wants to add to the platform’s feature set soon. She hopes to start a multi-person relationship so that trainers can offer group classes. And FitBudd is also looking at contextual automation technologies to help trainers manage their clients more efficiently – tracking client activity and notifying the trainer if someone is falling behind, for example, to trigger a relationship.

Mittal added, “Our most important goal is to reverse the deteriorating health conditions in many countries around the world.” “We know that health and wellness coaches make all the difference in helping people reverse those trends, so it’s important that more people have access to them.”