Future
Future, a digital personal training platform, raised $75M in a funding round co-led by SC.Holdings and Trustbridge Partners.
With participation from NFL star JJ Watt, Kevin Durant’s Thirty Five Ventures, golfer Rory McIlroy, and actors Kate and Oliver Hudson—who will produce a recurring fitness podcast for the brand—investors are putting their money behind the belief that digital fitness requires a human touch.
Editor’s note: Fitt Insider is an investor in Future.
In Touch
Unlike on-demand content or connected equipment, Future pairs users with a highly credentialed, full-time trainer. Upon signup and meeting of their trainer, members are sent an Apple Watch. The trainers develop personalized plans and track their performance through the Apple Fitness dashboard as well as daily text conversation.
An important distinction: Future’s trainers are equipment agnostic, meaning if you want a Peloton or bodyweight workout at home, or if you choose to go to the gym, the instructor will build it into your plan.
Future’s omnichannel flexibility puts it in a unique position. According to a McKinsey report, 60% of regular exercisers in America who exercise regularly indicated they will prefer a mix of working out at a gym/studio and at home in the future.
Future Moves
Having raised $110M to date, Future could expand its high-touch personal training app into an ecosystem for well-being, including diet planning, sleeping coaching, and mental health support.
It’s all going according to CEO Rishi Mandel’s plan for the company. Joining us on the Fitt Insider Podcast, Mandel explained five factors that define human quality of life, which Future wants to be a part of:
“Those five things are how you move, how you eat, how you sleep, how you deal with stress or mental health, and for a lot of people, whether or not you take your medication.
So, the vision for the company is to build a constellation of experts around you. And fitness is a really great starting point.”
Punchline: While the battle between gym operators and connected fitness companies rages on, 25% of adults in the US have become completely inactive during the pandemic. Solutions that can address Americans’ startling lack of motivation to exercise, no matter where, are essential to reversing this troubling trend.
