They say the gym grind pays off, and in the case of one corporate health and wellness platform, it certainly seems that way.
Gympass announced in August that it raised $85 million in Series F funding. The deal, which closed in two and a half weeks, was led by EQT Growth and values the company at $2.4 billion.
The announcement comes amid a belt tightening across the venture capital space. Many companies, especially in HR tech, are finding it harder to secure funds.
Gympass allows employers to provide memberships that include a wide array of gyms, health clubs, and studios, as well as nutrition, meditation, and sleep apps that their employees can use on their wellness journey.
“What we learned is critical for employee participation is actually having a product or a solution that’s good for every single employee, and people have different tastes,” CEO Cesar Carvalho told HR Brew. “We have [everything] from boxing to dancing, and anyone can find an activity to try and eventually find something to love, and once you love something you stick to it over time.”
The company, co-founded by Carvalho in 2012, caters to more than 15,000 corporate customers in 11 global markets and more than two million employee subscribers, according to a news release.
“Whenever we launch [at] an organization, we…more than double the number of active people, and that engagement only grows over time,” Carvalho said.
With the new dough, Gympass plans to invest in improving its platform—developing recommendations to employee users, for instance—as well as build more partnerships for every wellness vertical in order to reach even more employees and geographical areas.
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When the pandemic began, Gympass began expanding its offering to include other digital health and wellness offerings, including sleep, diet, and meditation.
“Before our platform existed, companies would be signing partnerships with different point solutions, and it would be extremely hard for them to communicate with their employees all the different point solutions—all the benefits—that employees would have. And it would be hard for the employees to pick and choose,” Carvalho said.
Zoom out. The funding is a bet that investing in programs and benefits that offer employees a chance to improve their health will reap benefits for both the workforce and the company.
Carvalho believes that being physically active leads to other positive changes in life, as well as at work. Research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention links good health to better workplace performance.
“Looking at your employees, and what makes them make better decisions, be more engaged at work, and productive, will be a critical differentiator for companies,” Carvalho said. “Those that will perform better will be those that have more engaged workforces [and] employees that deeply care about what they do…For them to deeply care [about] what they do, they cannot be stressed. They cannot be burning out every single week.”