I'm thrilled to announce Notion's investment in Glofox.

Glofox are a Dublin based start-up building a platform to enable gym and studio owners to manage their business more effectively. The product covers member management, class scheduling, payments, reporting and eCommerce and works for the manager, the customers and also the trainers. The company's CEO/Founder is Conor O'Loughlin, an ex-professional rugby player and a highly dynamic individual who cares passionately about health and fitness.

Glofox are tapping into a couple of major trends - one industry and one tech based.

Changing the game for the fitness industry

First, the health and fitness industry continues to grow impressively. A massive 27% of the world's population use some kind of health and fitness facility and the market is still growing by around 12-17% per year. Of those attending a fitness facility, 36% have a preference for class based exercise. Within the millennial demographic 48% use a fitness facility and there is an even higher percentage in terms of preference for classes.

I think it's fairly safe to look to millennials as a proxy for where the future lies. Within an overall large and growing market, class based exercise is where the puck is heading. Increasingly we don't want to just wander around a gym trying to figure things out for ourselves.

There are a number of benefits to class based exercise - more social, more motivational and more curated with a beginning, middle and an end. I'm convinced that we have only seen the beginning of the class based movement in the health and fitness world.

Mobile matters

Second, mobile devices have overtaken the PC as the primary way we interact online. Depending on what research you read, ecommerce via a mobile device is now between 55-75% of the entire market.

The two founding principles of the Glofox product are 'class based' and 'mobile first.' The product works well with any health or fitness facility but it has a strong focus on class based exercise, an area that has a very specific set of challenges. The company has also built the product to be 'mobile first' from the ground up. The mobile product is not an afterthought as it is with so many SaaS applications.

The latest generation of SaaS products are lovable. They have taken their cues from consumer apps and are optimized for mobile. They think well beyond the functionality and deliver a great user experience that drives engagement and retention. Glofox very much falls into this category, something that is reflected in the levels of customer satisfaction, engagement and growth that the company is seeing.

Time is precious

But most importantly, the Glofox product frees people up to do what they love. Fitness studio owners and trainers are doing what they do because they are on a mission to make the world a healthier place. They are definitely not doing it so that they can enter membership details, deal with scheduling and take credit card details over the phone.

So what Glofox are really selling is health and fitness. They are enabling anyone who cares about health and fitness to do just that. The Glofox product will take care of everything that needs to go on behind the scenes to make this happen. And Conor and his team are all fully aligned in this mission.

We believe the company has a very healthy future ahead and are very excited to be a part of it.

Posted by Jos White, Partner at Notion Capital.

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