Indore-based Froyofit bags pre-Series A from actor Pooja Gandhi
Indore-based fitness discovery mobile application Froyofit has recently raised an undisclosed amount of pre-Series A funding from actor Pooja Gandhi. Pooja, who is active in Kannada and Tamil movies, will now be the face of Froyofit in the South Indian fitness market. The startup aims at further expanding to the Tier-2 market of fitness enthusiasts.
Froyofit was conceptualised by Indian Institute of Management Udaipur alumnus Piyush Jain in September 2015 while the beta app was launched in March 2016. Froyofit has over 15 activities to choose from and more than 500 service providers or vendors to book from across five Indian cities including Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad, Jaipur, and Indore. This is noteworthy since a report titled "India Wellness Industry Outlook 2016 — Robust Growth in Alternative Therapy and Nutraceuticals Market” by Ken Research had noted a few years ago that leading fitness and slimming chains, beauty salons, and spa centres have been observed to expand to Tier-2 cities such as Pune, Dehradun, Nashik and Baroda. Within eight months, the Froyofit app has attracted over 30,000 social media fans and 1,500 users. In excess of 600 trials have been booked through the app.
“We started from two memberships sold per week to now 30 memberships per month. We plan to take it to 500 memberships per month by mid-2017 and get 1,000 more vendors on board by that time. Our categories include aerobics, dance, karate, pilates, swimming, gym, yoga, and the likes,” informs Piyush. He adds,
“This funding shall give us additional resources to expand strategically into new markets, innovate rapidly, and deliver on our vision to make fitness discovery easy and accessible to everyone."
Pooja, a recipient of two Filmfare awards, is a fitness enthusiast herself and her endorsement of Froyofit seems to be a match made in heaven. “I come from an industry where we worship fitness. Of course, now there’s a general awareness of fitness of mind and body which creates the need for the right options. Froyofit is a team of passionate people trying to make great discovery experience available to their users with the use of technology and they are well positioned to expand to Tier-2 markets where the competition is virtually absent,” she says.
While Piyush is a technology enthusiast who brings in more than six years of cross-domain experience, Paras Jain (55) adds to this expertise as a mentor and advisor. Other team members include Pallavi Jain (26) as Digital Marketing Lead; Smita Jain (30) as Chief of Staff and Product Manager; and Lalit Pawar (30) as Business Development Lead. Apart from them, there are more than 15 team members who work on various aspects of the business.
What makes Froyofit distinct?
The global market for fitness apps is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 31 percent until the end of 2020. Meanwhile, the Indian wellness industry is estimated at Rs 490 billion, of which wellness services contribute 40 percent. Indian startups such as Orobind by Housejoy, Healthifyme, PlaynLive, Fitraq, and GymPik that are tapping this market have their unique differentiations in terms of calorie counters, running companions, suggestion or discovery-based platforms, sports-based fitness solutions, etc.
“We are not just any other directory listing platform but we are an end-to-end fitness solution provider starting from discovery to booking and recording feedback. We also give our backend software access to our partners to manage their bookings, trials, and memberships. Every vendor on our platform goes through shortlisting criteria and post that we get them on board with proper contracts and agreements in place,” says Piyush.
Froyofit happens to be another startup operating from a garage with a lean philosophy in whatever they do. “Froyofit helps users discover various fitness options like gym, yoga, dance, pilates, cross-functional, aerobics, etc. on the basis of their location, budget, reviews, and so on. Our technical partner in this endeavour is Mobileappz ,” adds Piyush.
