Freeletics needs more money

The start-up is currently building up a second pillar with fitness equipment. It is planning a round of financing for expansion in the coming year.

So far, the fitness start-up Freeletics has offered AI-based coaching via app for the home, and now the matching equipment is to be added. The set, called "Staedium," includes dumbbells, a workout bench and, again, AI electronics that connect to a screen via a controller. The camera is used to check whether the exercises are being performed correctly, and the program then provides both critical and positive feedback. The goal is to make strength training fun and thus motivate more people to do it, says Freeletics founder Daniel Sobhani to the Handelsblatt.

The sets should be available from spring 2022, and the founder wants to sell up to 10,000 in 2022. "This will be a second major pillar for us," Sobhani tells Handelsblatt. Because so far there is only the fitness app, which offers individual coaching with the help of an AI. The subscription is free for now, and costs €29.99 a month if extended functions are used. The latter is also necessary when booking the "Staedium" set, which users can place in their own four walls for 2,490 euros.

Freeletics only raised €25 million in 2020, but expansion and enlargement costs. A next round of funding is due next year, Sobhani tells Handelsblatt. The start-up now employs 170 people to look after its 53 million users worldwide. Since the beginning of 2020, 13 million have been added. With its new offering, Freeletics is entering a different market: The model is the American company Peloton, which successfully sells fitness equipment for the home including training programs and thus achieved four billion US dollars in sales this fiscal year.