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Fitness and games are among the most popular categories of apps for years. Today, a London-based start-up, which uniquely combines the two, has raised a large amount of funds to benefit from it. Zwift, an interactive platform for users to turn indoor cycling training into mbadive multi-participant races, social walks and immersive explorations of new areas, raised $ 120 million – an amount that, according to its co-founder and general manager, Eric Min, will be used to expand to more categories of training (his first steps outside of cycling have been in the race), and to add some esports tournaments.
The funding – led by Highland Europe, with the participation of True Europe (not to be confused with True Ventures), Causeway Media and Novator – comes on the heels of Zwift's very rapid growth .
The startup now has over one million registered accounts (it does not disclose active users), compared with just 200,000 two years ago. Its users range from amateur cycling enthusiasts to cyclists as part of fitness programs and professional athletes who use to complete IRL global training schedules.
"More than a third of the pack on the Tour de France this year" – despite all its controversies, remains the best choice for road races – "are users of Zwift," said Min. There are 200 Facebook groups built around the communities of Zwift, with people using them to organize walks and sometimes even meet up in person after in cafes, just as they could do during walks in the open air. With customers in 100 countries, Min told me that there were an average of 300 trips a day on Zwift.
The company does not disclose its rating, but Min said the start-up "was approaching unicorn status" because of its growth and great ambitions and that it seems to exceed 500 million dollars with "a very small dilution" – a leap forward Pitchbook, estimated at $ 180 million, was evaluated for its evaluation in 2016 (it has collected about $ 166 million to date).
Min think that the recovery in e-sport could see the format become more and more accepted. "Our goal is to bring Zwift to the Olympics," he said.
Zwift's attack quickly to two different gaps of two common hobbies at home. One of the problems of exercise at home – and more particularly cycling training in a first effort – is that it can get a little boring, and one of the problems of To play video games too much is that they contribute to the trend we have in our society. modern world to be too sedentary.
The service means that you provide your own bike, which you badociate with a Zwift trainer (rack-like equipment that turns a bike into a stationary bike for indoor training), which records your stats and adjusts tension, etc. on depending on the route you are riding. You usually go to a TV for the immersive effect of a Mac, Windows or iOS application (also on Apple TV). You start with a free trial before switching to a monthly subscription of $ 15 (or $ 10 if you are currently under test or if you are already subscribed: the higher subscription was introduced last month).
There are no plans at the moment for virtual reality headsets or other head-based portable devices, because so far they have proved too bulky to be usable in the physical environment of cycling sometimes grueling, said Min. And for now, you do not use spinners or other stationary devices for cycling, because they can not provide the right kind of "real" driving sensations, he said. But this could evolve as Zwift's partners with more third parties (and with companies like Peloton, a big hit with home fitness enthusiasts, you can see how this could evolve).
In all its athletic and sporting ambitions, Zwift not only brings the fundamental tension and dynamics of play: it uses interesting algorithms to help its users train their users and determine the best logical step for them in terms of their ability. 39; increase. or decreasing difficulty while measuring all other cycling statistics. Min says that everything starts with getting a specific weight for each user.
Cycling currently accounts for 98% of the company's activity and the race is starting to take off. For runners, people use treadmills, and this is the model that the company wants to follow, including rowing machines, walking machines, and so on. Sometimes the locations are real places like Innsbruck, illustrated above. Sometimes they are imaginary terrains, like the fictitious Watopia Pacific, below:
Min tells me that he founded Zwift in London because it's where he resides, but that the development comes largely from Southern California because it is there that lies the stronghold of game developers. Min himself is an American expat (we are many here!), Specifically in New York, who had previously held the position of Vice President at JP Morgan and who then founded a fintech company called Sakkonet Technology, which is always so powerful. a cycling enthusiast who dates back to childhood.
"I wanted to do something different from fintech and the idea of Zwift started straight from me," he said. "I was a cyclist since I was a child, painfully. The worst thing to do is ride a bike inside because it was so boring. I used all the products I could but it was not interesting enough, so we wondered if we could use this technology for the game, combine it with what you do in cycling training, and to transfer all this on a digital platform? Even if you could get 80% of the experience, it would be better than what was offered in the past. "
Highland and the other investors are all strategic, in that they are already investing quite a bit in other fitness companies, which could in turn point to partnerships. Highland's in eGym and Huel; True supports the Ribble cycling brand; and Causeway invests in traditional sports and sports.
"Zwift is an incredibly innovative company and certainly sets the stage for indoor training space," Highland Europe partner Tony Zappala said in a statement. "This is a highly scalable company and we are impressed by how they have already grown globally: already 70% of current subscribers come from outside the United States. The research indicates an audience of 40 million competitive and enthusiastic cyclists, many of whom belong to the traditional cyclist countries of Central Europe. As a result, the growth potential of this market is considerable. "
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