Personalized workouts powered by AI.
🗓️ Programming note: We’re off next Tuesday and back the following week to share what’s on deck for 2026. Regular newsletters resume January 6th. Have a wonderful holiday season!
Wellness is inescapable.
Up 35% since 2019, it’s now a $6.8T market. Outpacing sports, tourism, and tech, it’s equivalent to 60% of global healthcare spending.
But 2025 wasn’t just a growth story; it was a year of transformation — with wellness becoming core to the cultural lexicon. Quickly moving from aspiration to infrastructure, the industry is projected to hit $10B by 2029, leaving no area of life untouched.
Influencing how people live, age, and connect, wellness culture is fundamentally reshaping American recreation, health systems, family choices, city plans, and even career paths. More than hippie fodder, the category is cutting-edge, ever-adapting, and anything but frivolous.
Reflecting on a monumental year, our 2025 Wrapped Report breaks down the macroshifts that mattered most:
- GLP-conomy. Weight loss drugs were wellness’s black swan.
- Full-stack fitness. Gyms are now longevity lifestyle centers.
- Sexual healing. Taboo topics have become innovation hotbeds.
- Food fads. Ingredient fixation is the new diet culture.
- Logo wars. Aesthetics without cultural currency are out of style.
- Guerrilla healthcare. The great decentralization accelerates.
📊 Go deeper → Read the full 2025 Wrapped Report for comprehensive analysis of the current state of wellness.
🎙 On the Podcast
Freaks of Nature co-founder Julia Nimocks discusses creating an athletic skincare brand.
Co-founded with surf legend Kelly Slater, Freaks of Nature is building performance skincare for outdoor athletes — leveraging microbiome-driven formulations for skin health and longevity.
We also cover: designing for an underserved demographic, crafting microbiome-first formulations, and scaling lean with contractors vs. full-time employees.
Listen to today’s episode here
🏢 Fitness is nonnegotiable
Renters and travelers will pay a premium for properties that support active lifestyles.
Top dollar. A new Peloton report shows fitness centers now rank as the top residential amenity, ahead of laundry and parking. 71% of renters factor fitness access into housing decisions, and more than half would pay extra—up to $63 per month—for it.
On the road. 60% of travelers value fitness amenities as much or more than other hotel perks, with demand even higher among Peloton members. Only outdoor trail access rivals gym usage among wellness offerings.
Ease of use. One-third of travelers would pay more for in-room connected equipment or on-demand training, signaling a preference for flexible, private, and convenient workouts.
Built-in. From wellness-led design and communal saunas to run clubs and nature-first layouts, fitness-forward properties are driving higher utilization and stronger community.
Punchline: As wellness real estate scales, fitness will move from luxury add-on to standard utility.
🔮 Making Exercise the First Line of Defense
The fitness industry has a data problem. EGYM has the solution.
With BioAge making raw metrics more actionable, and Genius creating adaptive, AI-powered training plans, EGYM unites assessment, programming, and progress in one intelligent workflow.
For trainers. AI handles the heavy lifting so they can provide personalized guidance and build meaningful relationships.
For members. Clear performance insights and adaptive plans boost motivation, progress, and results.
For operators. A scalable ecosystem improves retention, reduces overhead, and puts your club at the forefront of preventative health.
From smart equipment to corporate wellness, EGYM is forging the future of fitness. Learn more at EGYM.com.
🩸 The Personal Health OS goes global
France’s Lucis raised $8.5M to scale its diagnostic-led preventative care platform across Europe.
Expansion mode. Combining biannual 180-biomarker panels with wearable data, its AI-driven OS flags early chronic disease risk. Positioned as the “Function Health of Europe,” Lucis has completed 500K tests for 3K users across France, the UK, Ireland, and Portugal in one year.
All systems go. In the US, platforms like Function and Superpower are mainstreaming decentralized healthspan optimization memberships, while challengers like Lifeforce, Mito Health, and Hundred Health give chase.
Globally, Spain’s Holo recently raised €1M and Canada’s NiaHealth landed CA$5.75M, joining Lucis and other diagnostic-first operators in the bloodwork arms race.
Looking ahead: As lab access and AI commoditize, Personal Health OS platforms won’t win on testing volume alone — differentiation will come from interpretation, trust, and clinical action.
📰 News & Notes
- lululemon CEO steps down.
- Hybrid fitness gets scientific.
- Noom enters longevity medicine.
- The WELL plots Miami wellness club.
- GenoPalate adds B2B nutrition platform.
- Parsley Health launches BYO lab service.
- TravelTone debuts hotel gym discovery app.
- Outside announces key brand, mapping hires.
- Feed.fm reveals 2025’s most popular workout tracks.
- Biolyz brings biomarker testing to Borussia Dortmund.
- Love.Life expands membership, explores second location.
- Ohm Health unveils guided breathwork, biofeedback lamp.
- Coherent Solutions releases 2026 Future of Fitness report.
- Empirical Health combats heart disease with AI, wearables.
- Flow Neuroscience gains FDA nod for brain stim x depression.
- Momentous, VOICEINSPORT Foundation fund women’s sports research.
- Last call: Submit or nominate an industry-shaping startup for Fitt Insider’s inaugural Scouting Report by December 31, 2025.
💰 Money Moves
US 🇺🇸 / Canada 🇨🇦
Fertility diagnostics company Inito raised $29M in a Series B round.
Eagle Merchant Partners port co. Aligned Fitness acquired 13 Club Pilates locations in the US Southeast.
Loonen, maker of purified, microplastic-free spring water, secured $6M in funding led by Brand Foundry Ventures.
Skincare brand YSE Beauty landed $15M in a Series A led by Silas Capital.
Pediatric therapy platform Origin raised $2.6M in a pre-seed round led by Distributed Ventures.
Better-for-you jerky maker Righteous Felon landed undisclosed funding from GroundForce Capital.
Better-for-you snack brand Good Eat’n secured an equity investment from WNBA star Paige Bueckers.
Parallel, a K-12 teletherapy platform, raised $20M in a Series B.
Harmony Baby Nutrition, maker of precision-fermented infant formula, raised R$31.8M ($5.9M) in funding from Brazilian government’s FINEP-BNDES initiative.
Europe 🇪🇺
French preventative health platform Lucis closed a €7.2M ($8.5M) seed round led by General Catalyst.
UK-based supplements maker Heights closed £2M ($2.7M) in funding at a £60M valuation.
Irish performance analytics company ORRECO landed $4M and acquired Australian sports analytics platform Data Driven Sports Analytics.
HP-1, a cognitive health supplement brand from UK-based football influencer Jeremy Lynch, raised ~£1M ($1.3M).
UK-based health club operator Total Fitness secured £15M ($20.1M) in financing from OakNorth.
NORD Holding, operator of German gym chain all inclusive Fitness, closed a continuation vehicle led by Kline Hill Partners.
Asia 🌏
Indian plant-based nutrition brand Earthful raised Rs 26 crore ($2.8M) in a round led by Fireside Ventures and V3 Ventures.
Australia 🇦🇺 / New Zealand 🇳🇿
Recovr, an Aussie AI-powered member retention platform for fitness businesses, raised A$1M ($665K) in a seed round.
Australia’s Minimis, maker of AR eyewear for endurance athletes, secured undisclosed funding.
Latin America 🌏
Brazilian gym operator Panobianco Academia landed an equity investment from former Planet Fitness CEO Chris Rondeau.
Today’s newsletter was brought to you by Anthony Vennare, Joe Vennare, Ryan Deer, and Jasmina Breen.
