One of India’s biggest telecom companies, Airtel said that it has acquired 10% stake in fitness platform Spectacom as part of its Startup accelerator programme. Airtel’s accelerator focuses on taking early stage startups with high potential and turning them into full fledged businesses.
Spectacom’s USP, are its founders, Adnan Adeeb and Zeba Zaid who have garnered fame for their Devil Circuit military-style obstacle race which according to its main website, is “India’s biggest running community with a footfall in over 8 cities”. The company claims that the race has a demographic diversity spanning elite athletes, Indian Armed Forces, and gym goers on one hand, and college students, homemakers, corporate professionals, and retired senior citizens on the other.” The events already have a great following and will be beneficial for the upcoming partnership between the two companies.
With this partnership, the platform will gain the help of Airtel and its subsidiaries who are in the streaming business, like Airtel Xstream and Wynk music. Airtel said that this partnership will allow the company to reach out to people in villages and other remote locations to develop in them ideals of fitness.
No financial details were disclosed by either companies. Spectacom became the second company to participate in Airtel’s Startup accelerator program. The startup will create training and nutrition videos, along with live extreme sporting events.
The founders of Spectacom, bring much more to the table than the name Spectacom, as their Devils Circuit military-style obstacle races can be highly valuable, as mentioned by Bharti Airtel itself. “Thanks to the deep penetration of mobile internet in India, the potential to grow the adoption of Devils Circuit style X Sports amongst India’s youth is immense,” Bharti Airtel’s chief product officer Adarsh Nair said in the statement.
