Every year, fitness industry evolves and develop further, where partner training, group training and other business models are becoming popular. While, there are numerous fitness applications which are trying to win the race in the Dutch market, but there’s one which has lately caught our attention for the bold new developments taking place in the company.
The talk is about the Amsterdam-based fitness app company Virtuagym, which has appointed Lennart Gijsen as the new Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). The former head of marketing in Booking.com holds years of expertise in marketing and product management in SaaS and e-commerce sectors.
In addition to his role in Booking.com, he also had a stint open-source groupware platform Zarafa as Head of Marketing Communications.
Strengthening markets!
Having said that, Gijsen will be mainly concentrating on strengthening Virtuagym’s international growth and will work with the product and innovation teams to optimize Virtuagym’s services for local markets. “We are happy to have Lennart on board,” says Paul Braam, CEO, and co-founder of Virtuagym. “With his passion for innovation and his experience with SaaS, we are convinced that he will help us to grow Virtuagym faster than ever.”
“It is great to be part of this adventure,” says Gijsen. “I can not wait to get started with the Virtuagym team and deliver our solutions to more and more fitness professionals around the world. We have a great product and a nice customer base. I see plenty of opportunities to enter new markets and expand our presence in existing markets.”
Raised € 6 million led by Endeit Capital
In the recent past, Virtuagym raised € 6 million in its second round of funding led by Endeit Capital. Virtuagym will be using this capital to expand its presence in new markets especially in America and Europe and develop innovative products like yoga studios, martial arts dojos, and dance studios.
Founded in 2008 by Hugo Braam and Paul Braam, Virtuagym is an online fitness platform that offers basic exercise, personal training, and tailor-made nutrition plans for users.
The company has its presence in the fitness space in more than 80 countries, including important European markets and the US.
The company provides the software solution for both client coaching and membership management across the globe. The software includes exercise and nutrition coaching, mobile apps, online coaching, client and staff management, scheduling, invoicing, online payments, access control, and more.
Available in both Android and iOS, the Virtuagym app has a database of more than 4,000 workouts, which can be viewed as 3D animations or written instructions.
This app connects with Fitbit devices and tied up with a wearable maker NEO Health, which makes activity tracker and a body composition scale.
The Virtuagym serves both B2C and B2B, where it competes with other fitness apps, at the same time, it offers an “all-in-one” cloud-based solution for fitness providers, including tools for booking, billing, and member management.
As of now, the company employs around 200 people spread over Amsterdam, Los Angeles and Medellin. At present, Virtuagym supports around 11 million consumers, 4,500 health clubs and 25,000 trainers around the world, including fitness chains Basic-Fit (NL), Xercise4Less (UK), various YMCAs (US) and XSport (USA).
With the rapid growth in technology, the way consumers interact with health and fitness centers and their trainers is changing gradually. Virtuagym, which is uniquely positioned right now has the potential to successfully tap into the unclaimed space in their field.
Stay tuned to Silicon Canals for more updates in the tech startup media world.
