Here's how this fitness startup got funded by Olympics gold medalist- Abhinav Bindra

For start-ups, there are many milestones when it comes to success but only few stand out. For an emerging fitness start-up called FITPASS, it was a call from Abhinav Bindra- India’s only Olmpics Gold Medalist appreciating their product and relaying to them that he personally has been a user.

Akshay Verma, Co-founder, FITPASS told Business Insider that he thought he was being pranked when he heard that Abhinav Bindra wanted to talk to him, “We have a lot of celebrities using our product but usually, we know if the celeb is using it. For Bindra, we didn’t know and he called on the number on our website. I proceeded to speak to him and he invited me to meet him in Chandigarh and we discussed the business with him.”
Abhinav Bindra, who is on the Indian Olympic taskforce, believes in working to make the country fitter. Bindra who shuttles between Delhi, Chandigarh and other cities finds FITPASS convenient as he doesn’t have to rely on a hefty gym membership to be fit. Bindra also relies on different fitness rituals and this seemed like a perfect fit for that.

FITPASS, the all-access pass to gyms and fitness studios, raised $1 million led Abhinav Bindra and his business partner, Gaurav Marya, Chairman, Franchise India recently .”We did not need this round of funding but felt that it was the right time to announce Bindra’s support for our product. The fresh funds invested through Bindra’s venture fund – Shooting Star and Franchise India Brands Ltd. will be used to expand the full-suite of FITPASS’ service offerings across 10 cities in the next 6 months,” says Verma. FITPASS claims to be everything you need to get fit and stay fit and is available on iOS & Android. By making fitness accessible and affordable for the new-age Indian consumers, FITPASS subscribers can work out at any gym/fitness studio, anytime and can freely choose from a variety of available workout options - Gym Workouts, Yoga, Zumba, Pilates, Spinning, Kickboxing, Crossfit, MMA and many more. In addition, users can also consult their dedicated personal nutritionist and follow highly curated A.I. led coaching plans on the FITPASS app to achieve faster results.
The Indian fitness services market is estimated at $16.6 billion per annum by PwC and is the fastest growing services market at 25% per annum.