Health and wellness platform Stepathlon Lifestyle Pvt. Ltd has raised funding from nine investors across several countries including India, the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada, according to reports.
Some of these investors include Josh Liberman, a high net-worth individual from Australia, and Mark Adams, former managing director of IMG Singapore and ex-senior vice-president of IMG Golf Asia, IANS reported.
Stepathlon did not disclose the amount it raised. VCCircle has reached out to the company on the details.
The health and wellness firm was founded by Ravi Krishnan in 2012. Its platform combines physical activities such as walking and running with gamification strategies such as active engagement and competitions.
Its virtual race-course programmes are also used to collect and provide first-party data that helps businesses and community stakeholders to understand their audiences better.
The company said it will use the capital it has raised to expand across countries and into verticals such as fan engagement and corporate wellness segments.
“At a time when the world is dealing with the effects of Covid-19, the need for positivity and a focus on health and wellbeing is paramount, making Stepathlon more relevant than ever in the short, medium and long term,” Krishnan said.
Going by his LinkedIn page, Krishnan is an alumnus of Monash University. Apart from Stepathlon, he has also been associated with IMG across several senior positions with the group, and has worked as the vice-chairman of the Rajasthan Royals franchise of the Indian Premier League.
Stepathlon says it has so far worked with over 700 companies, engaging with more than 500,000 participants across over a thousand locations in 65 countries.
According to its website, some of the companies it has worked with include HDFC Bank, Abbott, Barclays, GSK, and Godrej Properties.
Going by VCCEdge, the data research arm of Mosaic Digital, Stepathlon reported consolidated net sales of Rs 4.28 crore for the 2019 financial year.
It also reported a positive Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) of Rs 23.5 lakh for the same period.
The investment in the company is also another example of the continuing investor interest in the fitness and wellness space, even in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Last month, the Squats Fitness Pvt. Ltd-operated Fittr raised $2 million (around Rs 15.28 crore) in its pre-Series A funding round from Surge, the accelerator programme operated by Sequoia Capital India.
Also last month, US- and India-based venture capital firm Mantra Capital invested in yoga and wellness startup Sarva in an extension of the company’s first institutional funding round.
This is the maiden deal that Mantra Capital has struck since it floated its first $60 million fund in January.
However, it has not been smooth sailing for the sector. At the start of this month, Temasek-backed CureFit laid off as many as 800 of its staff across the country and closed a number of fitness centres.
