GAIN Fitness raised $650k in seed funding this week, led by InterWest Partners, Keith Rabois, Ben Ling, Michael Tanne, Brent Hurley, Seraph Group and others. The company offers an in-app marketplace for personalized workouts designed by professional trainers.
GAIN's free iOS and web application allows users to purchase personal fitness regimes from professional trainers. A major update to the app, expected to be released in January, will include the ability to purchase trainer-designed “packs" focusing on "specific fitness goals" (fat loss, muscle gain, etc.), usage scenarios (gym, on-the-road, or at home), fitness levels (off-the-couch to advanced athlete), and more."
The company claims over 600k users have used the app since its initial release earlier this year. Additional trainer partners will be added to the app when its major update arrives next year.
The market for sports and fitness apps will cross $400 million in 2016, according to recent report from ABI Research. The rise of apps for connected wearable fitness devices will be a primary factor in the industry’s growth (ABI predicted 80 million such sensors by 2016). ABI predicts that there will be more than 1 billion annual health-related app downloads by the year 2016.
“Personal trainers are the most effective way to get in shape — more individualized based on goals and abilities than videos or programs — but too expensive for most,” stated Michael Tanne, serial entrepreneur and early-stage investor, in a press release. “GAIN’s solution leverages mobile devices and cloud services to make personal training more affordable and available, allowing millions more people to achieve healthier lifestyles.”
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Read the press release below.
PRESS RELEASE -- GAIN Fitness announced today that it has raised $650K in seed funding from InterWest Partners, Keith Rabois, Ben Ling, Michael Tanne, Brent Hurley, Seraph Group and others.
GAIN’s innovative platform creates a marketplace for both fitness consumers and personal trainers. GAIN apps currently deliver personalized workout experiences across mobile devices (available for free in the iTunes Store), and the web (gainfitness.com). The company’s next product release, iOS v3.0, is expected to launch in early January, and will create a marketplace where professional trainers can design and sell fitness multimedia “packs” that target specific fitness goals (fat loss, muscle gain, etc.), usage scenarios (gym, on-the-road, or at home), fitness levels (off-the-couch to advanced athlete), and more.
“On one side, you’ve got fitness experts and personal trainers, who are fantastic but unfortunately inaccessible to a majority of the world’s population, due to the one-on-one nature of their service,” explains Nicholas Gammell, GAIN co-founder and CEO. “On the other side are individuals, who all want to be fit, but have their own unique starting points, body types, aspirations and schedules.
Gammell continues, “Time flexibility and workout variety are the top two needs of fitness consumers which are currently underserved by this $120 billion industry.”
“Personal trainers are the most effective way to get in shape — more individualized based on goals and abilities than videos or programs — but too expensive for most,” says Michael Tanne, serial entrepreneur and early-stage investor. “GAIN’s solution leverages mobile devices and cloud services to make personal training more affordable and available, allowing millions more people to achieve healthier lifestyles.”
GAIN already boasts an outstanding team, including co-founder and user experience design expert Robert Bailey (original designer of Google-acquired Picasa), serial entrepreneur David Hoffman (former product executive at Posit Science), co-founder and “body hacker” Dereck Rasmussen (former engineer at Personal Shopper), and veteran iOS programmer Patrick Barry (developed top iOS app for NASA). And for qualified applicants, GAIN is currently looking for an additional designer and business development leader to join the team.
GAIN launched its free web application earlier this year, and re-launched its iPhone app for free in early October. To date, over 600k users have used GAIN’s personal training apps over 1 million times to build, customize and track personal trainer quality workouts. The company plans to unveil its initial trainer partners along with its iOS launch in early 2012, and is also looking for more fitness experts to join its growing personal trainer network.
Join the new fitness revolution today by downloading the app, and get your own dedicated, anytime, anywhere digital personal trainer.
About GAIN Fitness
GAIN Fitness launched in 2011, joining fast growth fitness technologies like Wii Fit, Nike Plus, iFitness, P90X, and DailyBurn. GAIN is poised to disrupt the fitness industry, which has been overly focused on “pain” and “loss” in recent years, and suffers from sensationalized marketing and consumer-unfriendly distribution models (think infomercials and Photoshopped before/after advertisements).
GAIN Fitness’s website and mobile app personalize and scale exercise science to fit individuals’ unique lifestyles. Founded by ex-Googlers and fitness experts, they have created patent-pending algorithms that apply exercise science to create highly personalized, dynamic workout programs based on an individual’s body, goals and lifestyle. Their motivational loop will leverage the best of gaming dynamics, social media and machine learning to get people started and keep them progressing, producing real fitness results.
