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PRAGUE, the Czech Republic – The trend of digital fitness escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic when people had to switch to remote or hybrid exercising habits. A study by Allied Market Research highlights that the online fitness industry is projected to reach nearly 60 billion USD by 2027, compared to 6 billion USD in 2019. Moreover, McKinsey reports the amount of fitness app users rose from 50% to 75% due to the pandemic, with 70% planning to maintain or increase their use of online fitness in the future.
“Companies that invested in connected fitness equipment before the pandemic presented sales records on a running basis. Moreover, the gamified approach, competition modes, and personal successes led to long-term committed users. An exciting fact considering the usually high churn rates of the industry.”
Stefan Schade, the co-founder and CEO of Trackbar
Austrian startup Trackbar closed its pre-seed round of EUR 450K in late 2021, backed by Czech VCs Reflex Capital and AI Startup Incubator (AISI) and an Austrian business angel Gernot Singer.
With the pre-seed funding, Trackbar developed a new workout system, CURVE, that digitizes pin-loaded strength equipment and provides real-time feedback with a workout curve from coaches to their clients through a mobile app. The originality of the system lies in its ease of use. CURVE solution enables new dimensions of energy efficiency, battery runtime, and movement tracking while being attached below any strength machine’s weight plates.
Trackbar provides a solution that fitness equipment manufacturers have been looking for. The interaction between manufacturers and Trackbar presents many values, such as easy deployment and use, simple management, not much of a technical background needed for the implementation, the possibility to digitize old fashion fitness equipment, and improving the new generation. On top of that, Trackbar gives fitness equipment manufacturers the opportunity to establish a recurrent stream of revenue they cannot easily have otherwise.
“The founders of Trackbar convinced me from day one with their authentic passion, professional approach, and execution capabilities. Connected Fitness is a growing field, and Trackbar is willing and able to play a significant role in that space.”, says Gernot Singer, board member of the Austrian Angel Investors Association and investor of Trackbar.
“Every modern gym shall look at Trackbar’s solution and algorithms, which are bringing training and fitness coaching to the next level. The solution is enhancing the work of personal coaches and allowing all the fitness lovers to track activity and technique while simultaneously picking up clues to predict the possibility of injury,” adds Angelo Burgarello, Business Director & Partner at AI Startup Incubator.
The official CURVE product presentation took place at Europe’s largest fitness trade fair, FIBO’22, where the startup won the Innovation and Trend Award in the Performance category. Trackbar already runs pilots at several gyms, including the franchise Anytime Fitness.
“To develop the gym industry from reaching 10% of the population to 20-30%, we need to reach bigger target groups. And not everyone will be able to work out with a coach; thus, the workout curve is a perfect tool to guide users”, Daniel Donhauser, ex-CCO of EGYM, co-founder of the gym chain MAIKAI, and investor of Trackbar.
In parallel, Trackbar and the equipment manufacturer ERGOFIT announce their technology partnership. During FIBO’22, the partners presented two newly co-created connected fitness products within the ERGOFIT ecosystem.
With this market entry, Trackbar will initiate its next funding round this fall to extend the sales activities and further strengthen its product innovation, following the startup’s goal of becoming the brain behind big fitness providers.
