Personal training platform Kickoff landed a $7M investment led by 645 Ventures with support from FJ Labs and Expa, per Axios.
Founded in 2019, the company has raised $11M in total funding.
Get Matched
Helping fitness professionals build digital businesses while linking exercise seekers to certified trainers, Kickoff is playing connector.
Client. Users are paired with a coach based on their goals, schedule, and experience level. After an initial consult, packages range from $95–365/month if it’s a match.
Coach. Using Kickoff’s tech, certified trainers field clients, delivering custom workouts and guidance via text and video sessions.
Scaling up, Kickoff co-founder and CEO John Gardner said the platform boasts more than 20K coaches. Growing sales, year-over-year revenue has tripled for three consecutive years.
Coaching Unbundled
Accelerated by the pandemic, fitness professionals are unbundling from the gym.
Typically employed as independent contractors, trainers earning hourly wages historically struggled to get by despite the global industry topping $100B.
But, as the fitness creator economy boomed, tech-enabled remote coaching platforms offer another way forward for certified pros.
- Fresh off $75M in new funding, Future’s personal training app combines highly credentialed trainers and a high-touch experience.
- Caliber brings exercise, nutrition, and lifestyle guidance together to deliver fitness results.
- From software to searchable marketplaces, TrueCoach, Trainerize, TrainHeroic, and Fyt remove friction for both trainer and trainee.
Accountability-as-a-service. Beyond connected equipment or AI trainers, using tech to strengthen the one-on-one relationship between client and coaching is trending. Fitness aside, when it comes to building healthy habits, CoPilot, Wellory, and Crescent are applying the same concept to mindfulness, nutrition, sleep, and more.
Punchline: By optimizing digital coaching for trainers while increasing access, affordability, and accountability for users, Kickoff and others are removing barriers and excuses. The final hurdle? Unlocking adherence to keep users progressing — and paying.
