Irish businessman Conor O’Loughlin has a unique set of interests: computer science and rugby. After suffering an injury that prematurely ended his professional rugby days, he channeled his energy into building a fitness-focused startup called Glofox.
Earlier in the week, Glofox, a fitness-focused start-up which was founded by a former professional rugby player and Irish businessman Conor O’Loughlin, recently picked up a $10 million Series A.
As per reports, Octopus Ventures led the funding round, with participation from Tribal VC., Notion Capital and Partech. This latest funding round reportedly brings Glofox’s total known funding close to $12.7 million.
Speaking on the announcement, O’Loughlin, the former professional rugby player said, “In the traditional gym somebody purchases an annual membership and the gym hopes they don’t show up to keep pace at a minimum, and it’s a very isolated experience.”
The founder of Glofox further added, “With boutique [fitness]…it’s very much group- and community-themed, and there’s a more social aspect to it.”
O’Loughlin also went on to add, “We’re being extremely narrow in our target audience, “It’s very relevant to the boutique fitness studio model, which is more driven around engagement… it’s extremely focused on how boutique fitness studio owners can build and grow their business.”
Glofox’s product enables its users with features that allow for membership flexibility like trials and additional branding control which is incorporated into the studio’s apps. Additionally features like member insights, which can help owners predict attrition, coupled with customer engagement tools and CRM are also included in the software.
While Glofox was reluctant to share specific revenue metrics, O’Loughlin told Crunchbase News that the company processed almost $100 million in bookings on its platform back in the previous year. O’Loughlin also further mentioned that the Glofox app and platform is used by nearly 1.5 million customers globally.
Glofox originally had its headquarters based in Dublin, however, it is now shifted to Los Angeles as it is reportedly focussing on expanding in the U.S, currently, the company operates in more than 40 countries. According to O’Loughlin, this is one of the main reasons for Octopus Ventures (based in London and New York) being a good fit, O’Loughlin said.
Additionally, as nearly two-thirds of Glofox’s new leads came from studios in the U.S along with 50 percent of its revenue coming from the same country, it seems like the company is on the right track.
