Fitness and wellness app Any Distance has closed a pre-seed round of $1.5 million, according to a news release.
About the raise: This is the startup's first investment. The round was led by Bungalow Capital. Participating investors included Atlanta-based Overline, Fitt Insider, Shorewind Capital, OliveX and The Gramercy Fund. The raise also included 30 angel investors, including executives from Athletic Greens, Sentry, Heap, Uber, GitHub, Cruise, Parade, Google, Fictive Kin, Fohr, Linear, LinkedIn and Apple.
Following the raise, CEO and co-founder Luke Beard says his company will go from three full-time employees to seven before the end of the year. He didn’t disclose the amount of users using the startup’s platform but said it aims to increase the amount by 60% before the next raise. The company plans to raise another investment round between $3 million and $5 million, depending on market conditions, in March 2023.
About the company: The startup is a mobile platform that encourages users to be more physically active. While a person is exercising, the app will track their physical activity and give them the option of sharing their statistics with visual templates. People can also earn augmented reality collectibles as they make accomplishments.
Why it matters: The fitness app market has been grown since the pandemic caused people to shift away from gyms. The global fitness app market size was worth $6.7 billion in 2021 and is projected to grow to $30.6 billion by 2030, according to research firm Straits Research. Despite a return to in-person interactions, Beard says he is confident there won’t be a decrease in demand.
“People are excited to be outdoors again. People are excited to connect again. You're seeing an explosion of running groups and people getting back together for pilates or frisbee or golf,” said Beard. “People are looking for active communities and are sharing their info to them.”
About the founders: Beard and his co-founder Daniel Kuntz both launched Any Distance drawing from their prior experience as founders. Since 2013, Beard has acted as CEO of Atlanta-based visual storytelling company Exposure. Kuntz co-founded music tech startup Crescendo along with serial entrepreneur Seth Radman in 2017. After that startup was acquired by Ultimate Guitar, he was later the founder of Atlanta-based music education startup Coda Labs.
In early 2020, Beard grappled with the pandemic by walking. He constantly shared his experiences on Instagram by photographing his experience. One day, he began sharing his statistics through templates he created himself. The inspiration for Any Distance came when people asked him what app he was using for his creations. A Twitter poll he conducted showed people were overwhelmingly interested in signing up for his concept.
