Balanced Secures $6.5M To Modernize Workouts for Older Adults

Balanced, a digital fitness app for older adults, raised $6.5M in a seed round co-led by Founders Fund and Primary Venture Partners.

The startup stands to disrupt a market of at-home fitness platforms that often overlooks seniors.

Editor’s note: Fitt Insider is an investor in Balanced.

The Future Isn’t Silver

Most fitness apps cater to healthy, younger users, creating a natural barrier based on date of birth.

Worse, the dedicated options available to older adults have certain age-related stigmas. Despite launching a digital fitness platform, SilverSneakers is associated with workouts for over-the-hill senior citizens, where programs are held in community centers or care homes.

It’s not a community many people look forward to joining.

Enter Balanced. A digital-first platform, Balanced acknowledges that older bodies move differently than younger ones, and aging populations face a wide list of complicating factors, like MSK conditions, osteoporosis, arthritis, and other chronic ailments. But, those 65 and up don’t necessarily want to be pigeonholed into geriatric workouts.

Different from antiquated programming targeted toward adults in their autumn years, Balanced offers a modern community with inspiring content from energetic trainers — ones that are well-trained to keep their bodies moving.

For a $20/month subscription, users can access live and on-demand classes—from cardio dance to strength training—all clinically reviewed for the balance, flexibility, and physical strength this population really needs.

The Dream of Aging Well

As we covered in Issue No. 117, Aging Well, aging isn’t what it used to be — or at least it doesn’t have to be. And the faster we can realize that, the better.

• In 2021, 54M Americans are 65 and older. By 2040, that number is 80M, representing 21% of the population.
• In 2019, Americans’ healthy life expectancy was 68.5 years out of a total average life expectancy of 78.7 years.
• While retirement communities are getting an upgrade, 90% of older adults wish to age in place.

Digital fitness platforms like Balanced view performance through a different lens, where moving more means living well. They’re not alone, either. Digital health communities targeting the 50-plus crowd, away from the gym, are emerging.

• In early 2021, Bold, a digital health and wellness community for older adults, raised a $7M seed from a16z.
• This January, 50+ fitness app Mighty Health added $1.2M to its seed round and partnered with corporate well-being platform Gympass.
• Rosita Longevity, a healthy lifestyle app for seniors, closed a €2.4M ($2.74M) seed round in February and will launch in the US.

Takeaway: All baby boomers will be officially designated senior citizens by 2030. As the future of fitness plots its omnichannel future, aging adults represent an untapped—and neglected—addressable market.