Ergatta Rows Into 2021 With $30M Series A To Gamify Fitness

In just over a year since its launch, at-home connected fitness startup Ergatta is managing rapid growth as a result of the global pandemic shifting people’s perception about exercising at home.

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The New York-based company, which offers a rowing machine and proprietary digital content, on Wednesday announced $30 million in Series A funding to support that growth, including tripling its employee headcount, continuing R&D for its gamified content, and scaling its supply chain.

“The digital content is the lynchpin that brings Ergatta to life,” co-founder and CEO Tom Aulet told Crunchbase News. “It is not classes, it is competitive, real-time feedback and gamified. Ergatta is also designed for your home — it blends in with your furniture and can be easily moved. It’s also a smart way to workout. When you first use it, it takes a calibration test, then tailors it each time for the user. Rowing exercises you at twice the rate of spinning and doesn’t destroy your joints.”

Advance Venture Partners led the round, joined by Greycroft, Fifth Wall, Gaingels and Hans Tung. This new funding brings Ergatta’s total capital raised to $35 million, according to Crunchbase data. This includes a $5 million seed round announced in July 2020.

Aulet considers this larger round evidence that this new category of connected fitness “is here to stay.”

Indeed, the global home fitness equipment market is expected to reach $8.62 billion by 2023 from $6.76 billion in 2019, according to ResearchAndMarkets.com. And, a recent McKinsey study found that 68 percent of people who worked out at home during the global pandemic plan to stick with it.

There is also a lot of investment activity: Home fitness system Tempo raised a $220 million Series C round earlier this month led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Before that, in March, connected personal training platform Tonal raised $250 million in Series E funding to value the company at $1.6 billion.

Ergatta’s rower is priced at $2,199, and the fee for the digital content is $29 per month. The company recently introduced a new financing plan for its rower for as low as $62 per month. Most members have multiple people in their family using the rower, and use it an average of 10 times a month.

“It is not streaming attached to fitness, it is a gaming-enabled fitness category, and us being leaders in the category,” he added. “For our current and future members, we are continuously evolving content to include more live events and companion apps. A bigger, more active membership means a better experience for members.”

Ergatta launched its product at the end of March 2020, and within eight months had met a $35 million run rate and was yielding more than $3 million per month, Aulet said. He expects future growth to be 5x year over year.

Courtney Robinson, partner at Advance Venture Partners, said in an interview that her firm, which invests in growth-stage companies, thought Ergatta’s momentum, growth and product market fit “was impressive” for a company that was live for less than a year.

“We believe home fitness is here to stay and adoption was pulled forward by COVID,” Robinson added. “Clearly, Peloton is the leader in this space, but what stood out to us about Ergatta was their intimate understanding of the customer and unique insight that not everyone wants instructor-led fitness classes. Some want a compelling content experience, and are more competitive and data driven. We got excited by going at it from a different angle than others in the space.”

Feature photo courtesy of Ergatta
Blogroll illustration: Li-Anne Dias