BENGALURU: Health and wellness platform Cult.fit, part of Cure.fit, has acquired a majority stake in F2 Fun & Fitness India to become the master franchise partner for the Gold’s Gym chain in India.
The companies did not disclose the value of the deal.
With more than 140+ outlets in 90+ cities, Gold’s Gym, is a popular fitness chain with presence in Tier 1, 2 and 3 markets. Cult.fit will be investing in scaling the revenue of existing Gold’s Gym centres through top-of-the-line marketing endeavours, integrated technology, and facilitating centre expansion via franchisees in coming years, said the company.
Founded in 2016 by Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori, Cult.fit provides fitness-related services under an umbrella of online and offline services. After the strike of the pandemic, Bansal joined the Tata group to grow Tata Digital while Nagori runs Curefoods, which has already raised $62 million so far.
In December, food delivery company Zomato invested $100 million in Cult.fit, as part of a Series F fundraise of $150 million, making the health start-up a unicorn with a valuation of around $1.5 billion. Zomato has a 6.4% stake in the company after the deal.
Cult.fit will look to expand the Gold’s Gym brand across 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, said the company.
Naresh Krishnaswamy, Growth and Marketing head, Cult.fit, said: “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, added: “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.”
