SUMMARY
Cult.fit has acquired majority stake in F2 Fund & Fitness India, thus giving access to Indian business of Gold’s Gym
Cult.fit with this investment will also try to expand Gold’s Gym outlet to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, and others
Gold’s Gym has more than 140 fitness outlets spread across 90 cities mostly in Tier 1, 2 and 3 towns
Fitness unicorn Cult.fit has announced acquiring a majority stake in F2 Fun & Fitness India, which owns the Indian franchise of international gym chain Gold’s Gym. With this acquisition, Cult.fit will now operate the Indian chain of Gold’s Gym.
As part of this strategic partnership, Cult.fit will be investing in scaling the revenue of existing Gold’s Gym centres through marketing endeavours, and facilitating centre expansion via franchisees in coming years.
Cult.fit will also be enabling all the Gold’s Gym centres with its centre-tech suite and customer app.
Cult.fit in a statement said that it will endeavor to continue scaling business and further grow Gold’s Gym into its network. Gold’s Gym has more than 140 fitness outlets spread across 90 cities mostly in Tier 1, 2, and 3 towns. With this partnership, Cult.fit will also execute its brand expansion across geographies such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, and Bhutan.
The development comes almost two months after Cult.fit’s parent Curefit entered the unicorn club. Inc42 on December 2, 2021 exclusively reported that Curefit has raised $145 Mn in a fresh round at a valuation of $1.4 Bn. The round saw participation from Zomato, along with San Francisco-based South Park Commons, and Singapore’s Temasek. Founder Mukesh Bansal, and Accel Partners also participated in the round.
Cult.fit in December also acquired cardio equipment brands, RPM Fitness, Fitkit, and Onefitplus and the bicycle brand Urban Terrain, in a bid to consolidate its position in the fitness D2C space. With the acquisition of Urban Terrain, Cult.fit did make an entry in the bicycle business.
Earlier last year, Cult.fit also acquired Tread, a Bengaluru-based connected fitness startup, for an undisclosed amount. Before that, it acquired fitness aggregator startup Fittnerity and fitness startup Onyx.
Founded in 2016, Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori’s startup Cult.fit uses an online-offline model to offer a plethora of fitness services including offline group workouts at Cult.fit centres and other gym- or equipment-based workouts at partner gyms and fitness centers across the country.
With the subsiding of the third Covid wave, and governments easing its related restrictions, footfall in gyms are expected to rise.
