From Cure.fit to Cult.fit: A look at a decade of pivots before the IPO

Cult.fit began in 2016 as Cure.fit, with a simple but ambitious goal to change the way Indians approached fitness, food and everyday healthcare. Its early bet was Cult, a machine-free workout format built around group fitness. Over time, the company stretched itself across several parts of the wellness market, from healthy meals and primary care to diabetes management.

 

Nearly a decade later, after navigating a pandemic that came close to upending its business, Cult.fit is now preparing to enter the public markets. The company is expected to file draft papers for a ₹3,500–4,000 crore initial public offering (IPO) early this month, according to media reports. While it has not officially disclosed the issue details, it is reportedly targeting a valuation of around $2 billion.

 

 

Cult.fit has appointed Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as advisers for the proposed IPO, Business Standard reported earlier.

 

How did Cult.fit start?

 

The founding of Cult.fit goes back to 2015, when health content creator and entrepreneur Rishabh Telang launched Cult in Bengaluru as a machine-free fitness studio, which focused on group workouts, martial arts, yoga, and outdoor training rather than conventional gym equipment. The concept gained traction for making fitness more community-driven and engaging.

 

A year later, former Myntra co-founder Mukesh Bansal and former Flipkart executive Ankit Nagori acquired a majority stake in Cult and merged it into their newly formed health-tech startup, Cure.fit. The aim was to build an integrated ecosystem spanning physical fitness, nutrition, mental wellness, and primary healthcare.

 

What began as an attempt to build a one-stop health and wellness solution for people underwent several transformations over the next decade.   

 

Pivots on the way

 

After launching Cult.fit in 2016 as its fitness vertical, Cure.fit rolled out Eat.fit later that year to offer healthy meals. It added Mind.fit, focused on yoga and mental wellness, in 2017. This was followed by the launch of Care.fit, its primary healthcare and preventive health business, in 2018, offering consultations, diagnostics and health check-ups.

 

By 2018, the company's integrated health ecosystem strategy was in full swing. It also expanded beyond India by the following year and launched Cult.fit in Dubai as its first international market.

 

But then in 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic came. Prolonged lockdowns forced gyms to shut, sending revenue down to ₹161.4 crore in FY21 while losses widened to ₹671 crore.

 

In response to the pandemic's financial impact, Cure.fit's first major strategic pivot came in 2021, when it began narrowing its focus to its strongest consumer brand—Cult. 

 

The company spun off its food business into a separate entity, Curefoods, led by co-founder Ankit Nagori. At the same time, the company also rebranded itself from Cure.fit to Cult.fit.

 

In the same year, Cult.fit also acquired sports and fitness platform Fitso from Zomato for roughly $50 million. Other acquisitions by Cult.fit in 2021 include connected fitness startup TREAD, an integrated smart-fitness brand OneFitPlus, and at-home cardio brand Fitkit.

 

Later in 2021, Cure.fit also backed Sugar.fit, an independent startup focused on diabetes management and reversal, as part of its broader healthcare ecosystem rather than as an in-house vertical.

 

In February 2022, it also acquired a majority stake in Gold Gym's fitness chain across India.

 

The acquisitions and rebranding marked a shift away from the company’s ambition of being a broad health super app towards becoming a fitness-first company.

 

Profitability and IPO prep

 

In 2023, Naresh Krishnaswamy took over as the company's chief executive officer (CEO). He told Business Standard that Cult.fit withstood the test of the pandemic as it had adequate capital, a strong brand, and a loyal customer base. He also said the recovery was not driven by a single strategic move but by four years of steady execution.

 

Under Krishnaswamy, Cult.fit accelerated its franchise-led expansion, deepened its presence in India's top cities and scaled up Cult Store, its consumer products business. Launched around 2019-20, the business has expanded from a single product category into apparel, footwear and fitness equipment. According to the company, the products business also improved gym economics by increasing revenue while keeping costs largely flat.

 

In FY2024-25, Cult.fit’s revenue grew 31 per cent to ₹1,216 crore, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) losses narrowed from ₹209 crore to ₹36 crore. As services generated ₹844 crore of FY25 revenue, Cult Store contributed ₹372 crore.

 

In the final quarter of FY2025-26, Cult.fit turned Ebitda-positive in the final quarter of 2025-26 (FY26), and its revenue jumped 40 per cent, surpassing ₹1,700 crore, Business Standard earlier reported.

 

To date, Cult.fit has acquired 14 companies across nine sectors, from fitness technology, fitness and wellness chains, to food tech, spanning India, the US and Canada, data from Tracxn shows. As of now, Cult.fit operates 712 centres across 75 cities.

 

What's next?

 

Nearly a decade since its inception, Cult.fit has emerged as a very different company from what it set out to be. While Eat.fit has been spun off, Care.fit has largely been wound down, and Mind.fit has been absorbed into the broader Cult.fit platform as a yoga and meditation offering.

 

With Ebitda profitability achieved, Cult.fit is now preparing for its next phase of growth. The company plans to expand from more than 75 cities to 100 cities over the next five to six years, driven by its lower-priced Cult Neo format, deeper penetration into Tier-II and Tier-III markets, and the expansion of Cult Store.

 

Talking about artificial intelligence (AI), Krishnaswamy told Business Standard earlier that AI is already improving the company's operations, from engineering productivity and customer support to gym operations, workforce management and product development. He added that AI has enabled Cult.fit to handle more customer queries without adding staff and is expected to deliver further operational efficiencies over the next few years.