Sports coaching platform Eastnine secures £2m investment to make training more social

Sports training startup Eastnine has secured a seven-figure investment and launched the beta version of its digital coaching platform.

The company, which has offices across London and Lisbon, generated £2m in a seed round backed by a mix of venture capital firms and angel investors.

The capital raised will be used to build out Eastnine’s engineering and content creation departments.

Founded in September 2018 by a team with backgrounds in engineering, design and professional sports, Eastnine is aiming to make training more accessible, social and authentic.

Its iOS app is focused on running at launch, providing curated professional sports coaching and a social training platform that means users never have to train alone.

Its coaching team includes names from the world of professional sport, alternative medicine and nutrition, including Team GB athletes JJ Jegede and Lewis Richardson and former professional rugby player Leo Savage; elite sports osteopath Alice Monger-Godfrey; and Will Girling, a nutritionist for competitive cyclists and Ironman athletes.

The seed round announced today (February 14) was led by VCs LocalGlobe and Cherry Ventures.

Also participating were angel investors including Niklas Zennström, founder of Skype and Atomico; former Spotify CMO Sophia Bendz; and Ilkka Paananen, founder of Supercell.

Jason Goodman, CEO and co-founder of Eastnine, commented “We want to democratise access to remarkable coaching talent. We look at businesses like Peloton selling $4,000 treadmills and think there is a lot more to do.

“With Eastnine all you need is a phone and headphones and you can train with some of the world’s most amazing coaches and run globally alongside other Eastnine members.”

Niklas Zennström said of his personal investment in Eastnine: “I have worked closely with Jason since the early Skype days and when he told me he wanted to disrupt the way people approach everyday fitness it was a no brainer to support him.

“I’ve become an active beta tester and love their approach to coaching. This is an outstanding founder team and the category deserves true disruption.”