#Asia Singapore’s GuavaPass bulks up with US$5 million Series A led by Vickers Venture Partners

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The money will be used for expansion into other markets, including the possibility of branching out its O2O model ‘GuavaLabs’

GuavaPass

GuavaPass, the Singaporean startup that allows people to sign-up for individual fitness classes across multiple gyms has announced today it raised a US$5 million Series A led by Vickers Venture Partners.

The plan for the money is to aggressively expand to other markets and focus on operational infrastructure and product development. The startup will also put some of the investment into customer acquisition as well as hosting community building initiatives.

“We are looking to expand into markets like Abu Dhabi, Istanbul, Shenzhen and Tokyo. In the next 12 to 18 months, we plan to grow our global subscriber base substantially and make inroads into the corporate market segment,” said Co-founder and CEO o in an official statement.

The company already operates in 10 cities globally: Bangkok, Beijing, Dubai, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Manila, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, and Taipei.

“We take pride in stating that we have the largest community of fitness studios and healthy living experts in Asia and the Middle East. Having the financial support and domain expertise of our investors will help us execute our vision even more rapidly and broadly,” said Liu.

Also Read: Fitness startup battle: KFIT vs GuavaPass

The startup uses a monthly subscription model like a traditional gym, but instead of attending the same location all the time, users will have access to fitness classes across the city. So on Tuesday I can go to a pilates class at Gym A, but if I am downtown for meetings on Wednesday I can look the schedule for nearby Gym B and see if they have a nice cycling class to check out.

GuavaPass says it has partnerships with 800 fitness studios and offers thousands of classes through its network.

“GuavaPass offering is well-timed with the growing public focus on the health and wellness industry. Vickers believes in the foresight, passion and capabilities of the Founders in driving their vision to revolutionise fitness for like-minded consumers,” said Dr. Jeffrey Chi, the Vice Chairman at Vickers Partners in a statement.

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The startup does have a significant regional competitor in Kfit. The Kuala Lumpur-based startup runs a very similar business model and has raised US$15.25 million in total funding since its launch in 2015.

In June, the company acquired Groupon Indonesia to enter the Indonesian market and branch into different verticals. It kept the ‘Groupon Indonesia’ name which now operates as a wholly-owned subsidiary of KFit.

GuavaPass is exploring an O2O model with its ‘GuavaLabs’ offerings, a physical space that bring GuavaPass members under one roof. Liu said he is considering expanding that model to other cities.

GuavaPass was launched in early-2015 and raised an undisclosed seed round in October of that year.


Copyright: wavebreakmediamicro / 123RF Stock Photo

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