Vytal Ventures, the athlete-backed, founder-led venture studio for health, fitness and wellbeing, today announces the launch of Cohort One, its first class of founder partners. Four founder-led businesses, PHYT, Precision Coaching, vessa and Open Wellness, join the studio, marked by a welcome day at Shoreditch Treehouse in London on 18 August that brought them together with senior operators and all four of Vytal’s co-founders for the first time.
Vytal Ventures launched in April 2026, bringing together Jack Malin and Dave Rushton, former founders of global fitness platform Membr, alongside Inner Circle, the founder-first investment platform backed by a global network of entrepreneurs, athletes and investors, represented by founding members Peter Crouch and James Cox. Cohort One is the first test of that model in practice: structured operator insight and investor access from day one, built to help each business move from idea to traction faster.
The welcome day saw founders present to one another, sharpen their preparation for investment rounds and rotate through one to one mentoring sessions with Vishal Amin, Chief Executive of wellbeing operator Until, Alun Peacock, Chief Executive of JD Gyms, and Jon Cottam, CEO of Energie Fitness, alongside the Vytal team.
Jack Malin, Co-Founder and Chief Executive of Vytal Ventures, said:
“When we built Membr, we learned first-hand how hard it can be for good founders to get the right support at the right time. When we set out to build Vytal, we wanted to meet founders and give them access to our expertise, networks and knowledge of the sector so that we could help them scale quicker. Cohort One is Vytal doing exactly that: four founders in a room with people who’ve actually built these businesses, not just funded them.”
The studio’s model pairs that operator access with a community of athlete and investor backers it calls the Bench. Peter Crouch, whose Inner Circle platform provides access to a network of experienced investors and former athletes, says the same thinking sits behind Cohort One.
Peter Crouch, Founding Member of Inner Circle, said:
“Elite sport teaches you the value of discipline, coaching and performance under pressure. Meeting these founders who live those qualities in their businesses is exciting for me. They’re all trying to solve problems that genuinely benefit people’s health and fitness, and putting the wraparound of our networks and the Vytal team’s experience behind them means that hopefully they’re more likely to succeed.”
Applications will open for Cohort Two later this autumn. Cohort One is now live to investors. Vytal is supporting all four founder teams through their raises via its investor network and the Bench. Enquiries to Laura Fisher: laura.fisher@vytalventures.com.
Vytal Ventures is an athlete-backed, founder-led venture studio building the next generation of health, fitness and wellbeing businesses. Working alongside operators, investors and athletes, Vytal co-founds and builds companies from the ground up rather than investing from the sidelines. vytalventures.com
About Inner Circle
Inner Circle is a founder-first investment platform backed by a hyper-connected global network of partners from the highest levels of sport, entertainment, entrepreneurship and finance. The platform combines cultural credibility, operating experience and direct capital to back category-defining founders. iccap.co
laura.fisher@vytalventures.com
Vytal Ventures
jack.malin@vytalventures.com
Vytal Ventures
