Health and wellness platform Cult.fit has picked up a majority stake in F2 Fun & Fitness India, thereby becoming the master franchise partner for Gold’s Gym in India.
This investment by Cult.fit will be instrumental in reinforcing the company’s commitment to building the largest fitness and wellness ecosystem in India.
Going into 2022, Cult.fit endeavours to continue scaling its business nationally, across non-metro cities and towns, as well as house brands like Gold’s Gym into its network to further propel their growth in the coming years.
One of the largest players in fitness with 140+ outlets in 90+ cities, Gold’s Gym, is a popular fitness chain and enjoys high brand recall.
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 with this partnership will also look to expand the Gold’s Gym brand across key geographies such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal and Bhutan.
This investment will additionally help augment Cult’s single access pass – cultpass – further making access to premium fitness services easier and affordable.
Naresh Krishnaswamy, Growth and Marketing Head, Cult.fit, said, “Cult.fit has been at the forefront of innovation in fitness with our expertise now spanning multiple offerings both online and offline. Partnering with Gold’s Gym, we will be able to strengthen our network further and offer the best of everything in fitness in one place. Gold’s Gym’s significant experience and sizeable footprint via multiple franchise partnerships paired with our deep-tech expertise and process innovation creates a winning formula for our customers and potential franchise partners. Together, we aim to build immense value into the fitness ecosystem generating top-notch tech advancement, great business opportunities, and better returns for our partners in the long run.”
Nikhil Kakkar, Chief Operating Officer, Gold’s Gym, said, “We are super excited to join hands with Cult.fit to fuel the next phase of growth for Gold’s Gym in India. We have a mission to touch 200 clubs in 24 months. Over the last 19 years, we have been privileged to work with the best partners in the fitness industry to successfully build the Gold’s Gym brand in India. With this partnership, we can now leverage Cult.fit’s strong technology, operations and demand generation capabilities to further empower and enable our high-quality supply to scale. We see this partnership as a great win-win for our passionate franchise partners, enabling faster recovery out of the pandemic and being their partner in growth for the long run. This also allows us to give our loyal customers access to the best of fitness services across the country.”
Bishnu Hazari, Chief Financial Officer at Cult.fit, said, “Our transaction with Gold’s Gym in India comes at a critical juncture for the fitness ecosystem which is just gearing up for recovery following the pandemic. This acquisition greatly reinforces Cult.fit's leadership position in the Indian fitness space. It also provides stronger impetus to our growth going into 2023, and enables us to seriously think about going public.”
Cult.fit had also recently acquired RPM fitness, Fitkit, Onefitplus, and Urban Terrain. Cult.fit also recently completed a $ 150 million Series F fundraise and entered the ‘unicorn club’.