Squats Fitness Pvt. Ltd, which operates online fitness portal Fittr, has raised $2 million (approximately Rs 15.28 crore at current exchange rates) in its pre-Series A funding round from Surge, the accelerator programme operated by Sequoia Capital India.
The investment marks the latest for Surge, which launched last year to increase Sequoia’s focus on early-stage funding. Fittr is part of its third cohort, which includes 15 startups from sectors including developer tools, consumer and education.
Pune-based Fittr was founded in 2016 by Jitendra Chouksey, a software engineer and ISSA-certified sports nutrition specialist. Chouksey started the venture as a WhatsApp group and then in 2015 created a Facebook community where he answered queries around fitness and grew the platform into a standalone venture since 2016.
“Our vision is to become the leading global social platform and marketplace for fitness coaching, and the confidence shown by Surge in this vision is a shot in the arm for Fittr,” Chouksey said.
The company claims it has over 850,000 members, with a cumulative revenue since inception of over $13 million.
Fittr’s other co-founders include Sonal Singh, Jyoti Dabas, Bala Krishna Reddy, and Rohit Chattopadhyay.
In May last year, Bollywood actor Suniel Shetty invested an undisclosed amount in the Pune-based Squats. According to VCCEdge, the data research arm of Mosaic Digital, Squats’ other investors includes Better Capital.
Surge’s bets
Seven of the 15 startups selected for Surge’s third batch are from India. Its second batch had selected 20 startups, 12 of which were from India. Surge said that 80% of the startups in this batch have come on board with institutional investors, and almost half have angel co-investors.
Some of the startups include the Singapore-based networking and mentorship platform Tigerhall Pte Ltd, which also raised $2 million in a funding round led by Surge and participation from XA Network, Taurus Ventures and angel investors.
Also, software-as-a-service platform Convosight said it had raised $4 million (Rs 30.26 crore) in its pre-Series A round of funding. Apart from Surge, participating investors included IvyCap Ventures. The startup uses data analytics and machine learning to help admins and brands to create, moderate, grow and leverage their communities on Facebook.
Other Surge-backed startups include lifestyle community commerce platform Trell, video editing platform InVideo, and education-technology firm ClassPlus.