Sports Startup Fitso Raises $1.5 Mn Funding From Zomato’s Pankaj Chaddah And Others

A full-stack sports facilities provider Fitso raised $1.5 Mn in Pre-Series A funding from a group of investors including SRI Capital, Sprout Capital, IPV Capital, Zomato’s cofounder Pankaj Chaddah, and cofounder of Helion Venture Partners, Ashish Gupta.

The Delhi NCR-based company will invest these funds in expansion, hiring good talent and developing technology to boost its operations. 

Founded in 2015 by Saurabh Aggarwal, Naman Sharma and Rahool Sureka, Fitso claims to be a full-stack sports facilities provider. Currently, the primary offering of the company includes coaching and access to all-weather swimming pools under its flagship SEALs programme operational in Delhi NCR throughout the year. Further, it claims to offer other sports programs in Badminton, Tennis, and plans to launch its services in Hyderabad soon.

According to Fitso, sports is a largely underserved market in India, where many people want to play sports but do not have access to expert coaches and proper sports arena. 

Fitso aims to solve these problems by standardising the sports facilities, implementing best practices in facility management using tech and providing highly trained coaches. Starting with swimming programmes, the company now has over 20K subscribers in Delhi NCR.

“Fitso makes fitness accessible and affordable using technology for people who want to play sports to get fit, by eliminating the need for a gym membership or expensive equipment,” said Fitso cofounder Naman Sharma.

“We focus on providing a facility to play sport under the guidance of a qualified coach. Fitso has even seen families buy a Fitso subscription together,” he added. 

Fitness Market In India

The overall fitness market in India is valued at $3 Bn and is said to be growing at 18%, with a mere 4% of the market comprising of organised gym chains or digital fitness startups, largely based in urban areas. However, it is to be noted that Tier 2 and 3 cities have not yet experienced the trend of digital fitness. 

Recently in August, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a new nationwide campaign called the FitIndia Movement. Under this campaign, Modi urged citizens to get more aware of fit and healthy lifestyles. 

Other players in the sports and fitness space include Cult.fit, Playnlive, Playo, BookYourGame and others.

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