CureFit inks deal with Oaktree Capital to bring Fitness First on its platform

Health-technology startup CureFit today said it has inked deal with Oaktree Capital Management under which Fitness First, chain of fitness centres, will become a part of the Bengaluru-based firm's platform.

Founded in 2016 by Myntra co-founder Mukesh Bansal and former Flipkart executive Ankit Nagori, CureFit operates its own chain of fitness centres under 'Cult.Fit' and also focusses on mental fitness (through Mind.fit), healthy food (Eat.fit) and primary care (Care.fit).

"As a part of the transaction, Fitness First will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Cult.fit, while Oaktree will get minority stake in CureFit. The transaction is expected to be completed in the next few weeks," Nagori told PTI.

Oaktree will invest additional capital in the consolidated business.

Nagori said Fitness First has 10 premium fitness centres in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai with 10,000 members.

The combined entity will have 50 centres in 4 cities with about 40,000 members.

"There are significant synergies in our business models and the combined entity will offer a compelling health and fitness offering to customers across the cities...This partnership will put Cult on track to become the largest fitness service provider in the country," Nagori said.

He added that the partnership will provide access to premium customers and also allow it to take its offerings like Mind.fit and Eat.fit to a large user base.

Talking about expansion plans, Nagori said the company intends to have 100 centres with about one lakh members by the end of this year.

"Both Cult.fit and Fitness First are cash flow positive business and operate on high margins. We are looking at strengthening our operations and by the end of 2019, we plan to have a presence across cities like Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad," he added.

Nagori said the company will invest about USD 20-25 million over the next 15-18 months towards capital expansion.

CultFit has raised about USD 45 million in equity funding and USD 15 million in debt till date. Its investors include Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital, IDG Ventures and UC-RNT fund (a University of California and Ratan Tata's RNT Associates joint venture).