Hyderabad Based Bodhtree Invests In Fitness Startup Stratfit

Bodhtree Consulting Limited (BCL) has invested $232K (INR 1.5 Cr) in New York-based fitness technology platform Stratfit Technologies Pvt. Ltd. via FundPitch funding platform. The investment is done through convertible debentures at a valuation of $12.4 Mn (INR 80 Cr).

With the raised funds, Stratfit plans to extend its presence in the US and other international markets.

Bodhtree and Stratfit further plan to raise funds to the tune of $3 Mn on FundPitch, a “discovery, and information-sharing platform”. It provides validated financial information about target companies raising capital investment. The platform is intended primarily for entities which operate through stock exchanges.

With this, the two companies have also entered into a strategic partnership. The deal terms include exclusive marketing rights and technology collaboration for Bodhtree.  Also, Chaitanya Akkineni, the son of Nagarjuna Akkineni, the leading film personality has joined as a member of the board at Stratfit.

Hyderabad-based Bodhtree is an enterprise cloud analytics and digital solution provider and builds and manages a business-oriented IT environment. The company has its sales offices in the US, Middle East, and APAC regions.

“The fitness market is big globally with the world gym market estimated at $100 Bn. Fitness apps are doing around $26 Bn and seeing over 63% growth Y-o-Y. Stratfit is an anchor client where we can bring our values to both Stratfit and the prospective investors,” said Rakesh Bhatia, CEO Designate of FundPitch.

The Stratfit Story

Launched in 2016, Stratfit operates in the health and fitness segment. It claims to be the world’s first strength training platform. It is a company promoted by Daniel McKee, the US-based celebrity trainer, and Olympic certified coach; Nagarjuna Akkineni; and entrepreneurs K Sriram and G Vamshi Raju.

The platform comes with an inbuilt governance system, enabling elite coaches to build a long-term fitness training program. These programs are rationally balanced, based on empirical scientific and mathematical principles.

Stratfit transforms all of this complexity into a simple instant messenger-like user interface. It utilises machine learning (ML) to auto-regulate the fitness program based on the user’s up-to- the moment physical preparedness. This further takes the form of a back and forth conversation between the Stratfit app and the user.

Daniel McKee, the creator of Stratfit said, “Our platform provides the most efficient monetisation opportunity to coaches, gyms, celebrities and personal trainers and other entities in the fitness ecosystem. It is a fitness platform to all the mentioned entities to collaborate and succeed together.” He further added that Stratfit provides all kinds of gyms access to to the expertise of elite coaches from across the world and provides elite coaches a global reach.

Stratfit first came into fame through its association with the mega blockbuster film of the year Baahubali as the official fitness partner to the franchise. This brought in over 13 Mn views and over 1 Lakh followers on social media platforms for the outfit.

Nagarjuna, while exchanging the agreement with Rama Krishna, Managing Director of Bodhtree said, “My interest to participate in the platform came in from the fact that I was using the system myself with extremely impressive fitness results with Daniel’s knowledge and extensive research.”

Earlier this week, Mumbai-based health and fitness discovery platform Growfitter raised $600K in a Pre-Series A round of funding from San Francisco-based VC SQue Capital. Other celebrities who have made their mark in the fitness industry include Milind Soman, who recently invested in Stayfit Enterprize Pvt Ltd. Also, in February 2017, Hyderabad-based digital healthcare startup Celes Care raised $1.5 Mn in Pre-Series A funding round. As per Inc42 DataLabs report, 2016 saw 90 startups being funded in the healthtech space with a total $129.85 Mn flowing in, till October 2016.