Fitness technology company secures £7.7m in Series A funding
JAXJOX, the global fitness technology company known for its innovative workout equipment and platform, has announced that it has secured £7.7m in a Series A round of funding with investors Dowgate Capital Ltd. and entrepreneur Nigel Wray, bringing total funding raised to date £13m.
The funding is set to expand development of the highly anticipated JAXJOX InteractiveStudio, the digital at-home fitness platform with connected free-weight equipment that creates personalised data points based on the user’s performance, and hits the UK market early 2021.
In 2019, JAXJOX debuted the KettlebellConnect, the first smart kettlebell with adjustable weights, at CES where the connected fitness tech received rave reviews. The months that followed saw the company roll out its second product the Foam RollerConnect and announce a heavyweight worldwide distribution partnership with Apple, which has accelerated the company's global expansion in EMEA and APAC regions.
The global fitness company revolutionising the health and wellness industry has seen 10x growth year over year and tripled the number of employees. In August, JAXJOX moved headquarters to a 10,000 sq ft studio in the US to expand its workout content offering for live and on-demand classes covering a wide variety of categories including strength, cardio, functional-training and recovery.
Stephen Owusu, JAXJOX inventor and Co-founder, said: “When we created JAXJOX, we set out to reimagine free-weight equipment like dumbbells and kettlebells and create technology that was built into the products to track a user’s performance during a workout, giving them the freedom to workout anywhere.
"We believe that, for users, tracking power generated while lifting will become as important as tracking your heart rate while running. The funding will ensure that we’re able to meet the demand for those working out from home in a way that helps them achieve wellness goals with leading-edge technology that doesn’t take up too much physical space in the home and tracks performance to help make targets attainable.”
“Beyond fitness-tech products, our vision is to close the gap between fitness and health. By monitoring performance metrics and using AI, we can give users a more holistic view of their health and provide recommendations on improving their wellbeing. We know working out is only one aspect of wellness and will continue to enhance our platform to provide an unparalleled experience,” Owusu added.
Nigel Wray, entrepreneur and JAXJOX investor, said: “After investing in the angel round, we were delighted to increase our stake in JAXJOX because we believe they are going to transform the home fitness market. The KettlebellConnect was such a success we can't wait to see how they shake up the space with the InteractiveStudio.”
The next generation InteractiveStudio is a compact gym fitted with a 43” capacitive touchscreen TV that rotates horizontally, vertically and tilts for floor exercises, as well as four smart connected products with automatic adjustability, replacing the need of 6 kettlebells and 15 dumbbells. The InteractiveStudio transforms any room to a complete gym with 145 lbs of adjustable weight, a smart push up device and a digital, vibrating foam roller. Compared to other products in the space, InteractiveStudio has a substantially richer training experience with real-time data including repetitions, power and a proprietary Fitness IQ score to give users an understanding of their overall wellness.
“We are immensely proud to be an innovative British-backed company that is bringing a completely new and game changing experience to how people work out, and this new financial boost will help us scale our offering globally” said Atul Shah, Co-founder and Chairman of JAXJOX.
JAXJOX uses a proprietary machine learning algorithm to calculate the user’s Fitness IQ score. The score keeps them informed on overall progress toward fitness goals and can also provide personal workout recommendations. JAXJOX uses peak and average power, heart rate, workout consistency, steps, body weight, and your chosen fitness level in the calculation.
The InteractiveStudio will be available for purchase in the UK early 2021, however you can add your name to their waitlist to be one of the first to be notified. The KettlebellConnect 2.0 and DumbbellConnect are currently available and can be purchased at here.
