Fitprime, a digital platform dedicated to the fitness world that allows people to keep fit both in the gym and at home, announces that it concluded a capital increase of approximately 2.5
million euros. The investors of the previous rounds (LVG, IAG and Club degli Investitori) and Vertis SGR, as lead investor, through the "Vertis Venture 2 Scaleup" and "Vertis Venture 4 Scaleup Lazio" funds, took part in the operation.
Born in 2016 from the Luiss Enlabs acceleration program, Fitprime has quickly become the reference point in the fitness market and represents the pass to access a network of thousands of sports centers throughout Italy with a single monthly subscription with no strings attached. In 2018, Fitprime launched the Corporate solution, a platform entirely dedicated to Corporate Wellness that allows companies to promote the well-being of their employees by focusing on the nutritional, physical and mental aspect - to date chosen as a fringe benefit by major companies such as Capgemini, BIP, MCDonald, SKY and KPMG . During the closure of sports centers dictated by the Prime Ministerial Decrees for the containment of Covid-19 contagions, Fitprime was committed to creating another line of business, so it designed and launched in record time a new portal entirely dedicated to homeworkouts, with thousands of on-demand and live classes held by the best trainers - Fitprime TV.
Thanks to the new fundraising round, the Fitprime team intends to consolidate its presence in the Italian market, reaching more than 3,500 partner sports centers, accelerate the growth of the Corporate solution and continue the development and diffusion of Fitprime TV, starting its internationalization process.
Matteo Musa, Fitprime CEO and co-founder, states: “ Fitprime's birth represented forus the challenge to continue revolutionizing the way we conceive wellness. We accepted it with great enthusiasm, and this has led us to some really important results right from the start. Over time, we have developed our offer with great care, listening to our customers and always keeping in mind a fundamental objective: to promote the well-being of people. The sudden closure of gyms and sports centers pushed us to find a new alternative way to pursue our vision, turning the threat to our business into a new opportunity. Thanks to Fitprime TV we have in fact extended our offer to the home-workout - or, as we have renamed it, to the "smart-workout" - to stand by all those who have had to embrace smart working. This product has allowed us to enrich even more the offer intended for the B2B market, allowing us to maintain a high number of active users despite the forced shutdown of sports centers. Today we are very proud to have found the support and trust of Vertis SGR and our previous
investors, who recognize the potential of our reality and who will accompany us towards a new phase of development that will be crucial for Fitprime's growth and future”.
Flavio Carboni, Fitprime's CFO, adds: “ Thanks to a careful and accurate medium/long term strategic and financial planning, it has been possible to overcome the adversities of this difficult pandemic time, ensuring that the company arrived prepared to such an important milestone and demonstrating strong resilience, even in financial terms. This new investment will lead to great company growth and further expansion in our target market”.
Alessandro Pontari, Senior Investment Manager at Vertis, says : “The health & fitness industry has significant room for growth in the digital sphere, and the period we are going through has accelerated this transformation process, changing the way we enjoy sports activities. In Fitprime we have found the best possible response to this need, and the team led by Matteo has demonstrated a great ability to penetrate new channels, entering the B2B segment, and to quickly launch new products on the market, such as Fitprime TV, dedicated to home-workouts”.
Antonio Leone, President of Italian Angels for Growth, and Giancarlo Rocchietti, President and Founder of the Club of Investors, said: “With this new investment we reaffirm our confidence in Fitprime, which has shown, even in this historical period, to be able to face new challenges through an excellent and successful team, capable of intercepting new needs and revise its offerings following the pandemic, always focusing on people's wellbeing”.
Luigi Capello, LVenture Group CEO, concludes: “ Fitprime was able to react to the changes imposed by the pandemic, developing Fitprime TV in a few weeks and transforming a difficult situation into a business opportunity. The team has shown great resilience and adaptability, complementing their offering in a market, that of online fitness, which in the post-Covid scenario is estimated to grow at an annual rate of over 30%, reaching $60 billion worldwide in the coming years. This new, important investment round, in addition to consolidating the leadership of the startup in the Italian market, will support it in its international scale-up ”.