糖心视频

In just over a year since its launch, at-home connected fitness startup is managing rapid growth as a result of the global pandemic shifting people鈥檚 perception about exercising at home.

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The New York-based company, which offers a rowing machine and proprietary digital content, on Wednesday announced $30 million in Series A funding to support that growth, including tripling its employee headcount, continuing R&D for its gamified content, and scaling its supply chain.

鈥淭he digital content is the lynchpin that brings Ergatta to life,鈥� co-founder and CEO told Crunchbase News. 鈥淚t is not classes, it is competitive, real-time feedback and gamified. Ergatta is also designed for your home 鈥� it blends in with your furniture and can be easily moved. It鈥檚 also a smart way to workout. When you first use it, it takes a calibration test, then tailors it each time for the user. Rowing exercises you at twice the rate of spinning and doesn鈥檛 destroy your joints.鈥�

led the round, joined by,, and . This new funding brings Ergatta鈥檚 total capital raised to $35 million, according to Crunchbase data. This includes a $5 million seed round announced in July 2020.

Aulet considers this larger round evidence that this new category of connected fitness 鈥渋s here to stay.鈥�

Indeed, the is expected to reach $8.62 billion by 2023 from $6.76 billion in 2019, according to. And, a recent found that 68 percent of people who worked out at home during the global pandemic plan to stick with it.

There is also a lot of investment activity: Home fitness system raised a $220 million Series C round earlier this month led by 2. Before that, in March, connected personal training platform raised $250 million in Series E funding to value the company at $1.6 billion.

Ergatta鈥檚 rower is priced at $2,199, and the fee for the digital content is $29 per month. The company recently introduced a new financing plan for its rower for as low as $62 per month. Most members have multiple people in their family using the rower, and use it an average of 10 times a month.

鈥淚t is not streaming attached to fitness, it is a gaming-enabled fitness category, and us being leaders in the category,鈥� he added. 鈥淔or our current and future members, we are continuously evolving content to include more live events and companion apps. A bigger, more active membership means a better experience for members.鈥�

Ergatta launched its product at the end of March 2020, and within eight months had met a $35 million run rate and was yielding more than $3 million per month, Aulet said. He expects future growth to be 5x year over year.

, partner at Advance Venture Partners, said in an interview that her firm, which invests in growth-stage companies, thought Ergatta鈥檚 momentum, growth and product market fit 鈥渨as impressive鈥� for a company that was live for less than a year.

鈥淲e believe home fitness is here to stay and adoption was pulled forward by COVID,鈥� Robinson added. 鈥淐learly, is the leader in this space, but what stood out to us about Ergatta was their intimate understanding of the customer and unique insight that not everyone wants instructor-led fitness classes. Some want a compelling content experience, and are more competitive and data driven. We got excited by going at it from a different angle than others in the space.鈥�

Feature photo courtesy of Ergatta
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