Ali Hasan
The food delivery company Zomato has acquired a 100% stake in the full-stack sports platform Fitso; this is the first acquisition by Zomato after UberEats was bought by the Gurugram-based company in January 2020.
The cash-and-stock transaction values Fitso, a 5-year-old Gurugram-based company, at roughly $20 million, according to a person intimately familiar with the deal. “Negotiations have reached an advanced stage and the term sheet is being finalized”.
Fitso, founded in 2015 by three IIT Delhi alumni — Naman Sharma, Rahool Sureka and Saurabh Agarwal, is a full-stack sports facilities provider and claims to have more than 20,000 users in Delhi NCR. Since its inception in 2015, it has raised $1.7 million from SRI Capital, Pankaj Chaddah, Helion Ventures’ founder Ashish Gupta and AppyHigh.
Users on the platform can choose a sport and book a time slot at their nearest facility. It also claims to standardize the sports facilities at any stadium, field or court, implementing best practices in facility management using tech and providing highly trained coaches on a subscription basis.
Fitso provides a lot of amenities
Fitso started as a partner-finding app for runners and cyclists. It now offers members fitness solutions along with personal coaches and sports facilities, mainly swimming pools. “The deal has been internally announced by Zomato. Fitso’s team along with its co-founders will join Zomato,” said one of the sources on condition of anonymity.
Sources emphasized that the acquisition would help Zomato get into the fitness space. “It appears to be a smart move by Zomato as most of its users are millennials who can be potential takers of Fitso’s offerings”.
The acquisition of Fitso by Zomato has come a month after it had closed a $600 million financing round at a valuation of $3.9 billion. The company is also preparing for a public listing this year. An initial public offering or IPO in India is unlikely as Zomato is still not near profitability.
But, this acquisition will strengthen the position of Zomato and will help them to achieve profitability in the near future. It will also help them to get to an IPO in 2021 or 2022. Whenever their IPO launches, we will update you guys. For more IPO alerts, stay tuned and keep coming back.
