Member Article

Live fitness platform Flex celebrates five-figure funding after just five months in business

New live video fitness platform Flex has announced that it has secured its first significant tranche of funding, and joined an up and coming accelerator programme, despite having only been founded in February this year.

The startup, devised by co-founders Elliott Perry and Matthew Quinn, draws on the growing trend of online influencers and YouTube fitness videos to bring the gym class experience directly into the home through live video streaming on its platform.

Based out of London, the innovative tech firm has already caught the attention of Disney through its ESPN subsidiary, and has now been accepted on to the recently established Sprint Pirates accelerator programme in Shoreditch.

Working near Google Campus London, and surrounded by similarly ambitious startups vying to make a name for themselves in the fertile tech scene in the area, the fitness business will benefit from co-working facilities, workshops and guidance as part of the six-week programme.

Perhaps most importantly, acceptance onto the accelerator has also unlocked £35,000 in funding, an amount which co-founder Elliott described as ‘transformational’ when speaking to Bdaily about a breakneck few months at the startup.

“Having went through the process of founding and growing a previous startup I found myself light on cash and time on more than one occasion!“

The 26-year-old entrepreneur, who originally hails from the North-East, is something of a serial entrepreneur having already sold his first venture, a B2B online events and marketing platform, which he founded at the age of 23.

Asking him about the inspiration behind Flex, Elliott is very forthright about the rigours and difficulties that come with starting your own business and it was these formative entrepreneurial experiences that fed directly into the inspiration for his new business.

He explained: “Healthy eating and fitness workouts have been a large part of my life since the late teens. Having went through the process of founding and growing a previous startup I found myself light on cash and time on more than one occasion!

“Plus I travelled around a lot. As a result I found myself experimenting with home workouts - fitness DVDs and YouTube videos.

“What always struck me was that no matter how amazingly engaging the content was, if I was solely responsible for my own motivation with no accountability to anyone but myself it was all too easy to let things slip if I had a tough day or a long todo list.”

At its core, Flex is all about recreating the sense of community and motivation that comes with attending a fitness class with other people that YouTube videos cannot replicate.

In doing so, the startup is tapping into a common vein running through many tech firms on the scene at the moment: providing an experiential service for time-poor individuals.

Flex works by live streaming workout routines by its team of physical trainers, allowing anyone to tune in and get involved with a fellow community of virtual gym buddies with the ability to communicate directly with the trainer through its live chat feature.

“You immediately plug in to a communal workout experience right from your front room by watching a live video workout with the ability to engage with both the trainer and other participants. The video feed is one-to-many so all of the participants can see the trainer but nobody can see you,” says James.

The benefits for the self-conscious or for those who do not have time for traditional gym memberships are obvious.

“We give them a more raw, intimate, authentic setting to connect with their fanbase…“

However, trainers also benefit from the ability to monetise their videos, and Elliott has an even broader vision of really popular trainers on the site becoming influencers in their own right.

As Elliott explained, the immediate focus for the business is building an engaged community of users through immersive, live video workouts with the eventual aim of attracting influencers from the major platforms to eventually run their own sessions on the site.

He said: “One of our primary routes to market involves capitalizing on the existing audience of influencers from YouTube, Instagram and other social platforms.

“We give them a more raw, intimate, authentic setting to connect with their fanbase and they give us a pipeline of talent that people sign up by the thousands to engage with.”

For now, Elliott and Matt are focused on growing Flex from its extremely promising roots as the Sprint Pirates accelerator and investment provide a timely shot in the arm for the young business which is looking to make waves in the hotly contested startup ecosystem in the capita.

Elliott added: “Both myself and Matt had exhausted a lot of savings working on previous startups and we were getting to the point where we needed to raise funds or find some other way of financing our lives, fortunately Sprint Pirates came along at the perfect time.

“This small injection of capital gives Flex the freedom to rapidly experiment and penetrate the London market during these pivotal early months.”