GuavaPass, a two-year-old Singapore-based service for finding gyms and fitness centers across Asia and the Middle East, has pulled in a funding of S$7.5 million in its Series A round. The funding was led by Vickers Venture Partners, with included input from other undisclosed “strategic” investors.
Despite question marks around others in its field, GuavaPass, which operates in ten cities across Asia Pacific and the Middle East like Abu Dhabi, Istanbul, Shenzhen and Taipei, believes that it is developing a sustainable business.
The startup will put some of the investment into customer acquisition as well as hosting community building initiatives. The remaining chunk of money will be used to expand to other markets and focus on operational infrastructure and product development.
Commenting on the funding round, Jeffrey Liu, GuavaPass CEO and co-founder said,
What we’re building in Asia is very unique to Asia, we can tailor the product don’t want to create a cookie cutter solution.
GuavaPass President and co-founder Rob Pacther also voiced his views, saying,
From our viewpoint, we set out to build a sustainable business always been careful that we weren’t over subsidizing our product.
The duo explained the grand vision behind GuavaPass is to create a fitness community. Already, the company offers resources on its website, blog posts, newsletters and more, white it recently opened its own 2,000 studio: GuavaLabs in Singapore.
GuavaPass says it has partnerships with 800 fitness studios and offers thousands of classes through its network. They are currently exploring an O2O model with its ‘GuavaLabs’ offerings, a physical space that brings its members under one roof.
KFit, the closest rival to GuavaPass, expanded beyond fitness after it raised $12 million earlier this year. In June, it acquired Groupon’s Indonesia business to move into commerce, in turn throwing up suggestions that it may be looking supplement its revenue streams with a more proven monetization model.
