Irish gym software business LegitFit to accelerate its expansion across the UK.
Cork gym and studio software firm LegitFit has closed a €1m seed funding round led by Delta Partners.
Bank of Ireland is a cornerstone investor in Delta’s latest fund along with Enterprise Ireland, Fexco and others, which aims to invest in 30 of Ireland’s most innovative and exciting tech start-ups.
“It’s amazing that the seedling of an idea in college has rapidly grown into a strong business making real revenues”
This brings the LegitFit’s total amount of funding to date to €1.6m, having previously raised a family, friends and customers round in 2021.
Fit to grow
LegitFit is a leading provider of management software for gyms and fitness studios. Since launching in 2019, the company has attracted customers across 15 countries and achieved 5-star ratings across all review sites.
“This is a really exciting milestone for our company and for our customers – some of whom are investors,” said LegitFit co-founder and CEO Ryan O’Neill.
“It’s been a phenomenal year of growth for us and this funding will be a catalyst to further progress being leaders in the Irish market as well as establishing a firm foothold in the UK market which we started earlier this year.”
By building a platform with a singular goal of supporting fitness businesses to own their time and grow, LegitFit’s latest investment is taking place in the context of a rapidly expanding fitness and exercise market which is estimated to be valued at over €1.3trn by 2025.
“The customer-obsessed focus of the LegitFit team and their ability to build a product that delivers what fitness business owners actually need, in a complex and rapidly evolving industry, compelled us to invest,” said Delta Partners’ Rich Barnwell.
“We’ve been impressed with Ryan, Gearoid and Ian and we are excited to be joining their journey as they continue to progress and expand into new markets”
Founded in 2019 by Ryan O’ Neill, Gearoid Collins and Ian O’ Sullivan, LegitFit provides gyms, studios and independent fitness professionals with business management software that saves its customers up to €10,000 per year. Its core mission is to empower fitness entrepreneurs, to optimise their time so they can focus on what really matters to them – be that inside or outside the business.
The platform manages the core aspects of running a fitness business including member management, scheduling, payments and communications. The company has also more recently launched a website builder that helps its customers to attract and convert more inbound leads while ensuring costs for the creation of the site are manageable.
LegitFit is a client of Enterprise Ireland and was previously supported by accelerator programmes such as Ignite & Techstars.
“Our ambition over the next 12 months is to double our customer base and explore other opportunities – like franchises and chains. It’s amazing that the seedling of an idea in college has rapidly grown into a strong business making real revenues,” O’Neill concluded.
“I think the best part is that we get the opportunity to help thousands of people make a major impact on their communities and their own lives.”
In related news O’Neil will feature on a panel next week at a special event on 15 September hosted by Delta Partners and Bank of Ireland to give the founders of tech start-ups in Cork a behind-the-scenes look at how venture capital investors and founders work together over the entire start-up journey, with first-hand lessons from both sides.
Special guest speakers at the event include Carl Jackson, the founder of one of Cork’s most successful technology companies, SensL Technologies Ltd., which was later acquired by Nasdaq-listed Fortune 500 company ON Semiconductor. Delta partner Rich Barnwell will also share his experience as a hands-on entrepreneur having created Digit Games which subsequently sold to US games company Scopely.
