iFIT Health & Fitness Inc., formerly Icon Health & Fitness Inc., announced it has acquired Sweat, an online fitness training platform geared toward women. Sources told the Wall Street Journal the acquisition comes ahead of an initial public offering expected in the fall.
In a statement, iFIT said the acquisition of Sweat expands iFIT’s presence in the global digital fitness market, and accelerates the company’s ongoing shift into interactive fitness experiences. Sweat will remain a standalone brand as part of iFIT. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Sources told The Wall Street Journal that iFIT paid about $300 million for Sweat and confidentially filed papers recently with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Following on the success of Peloton Interactive’s IPO in late 2019, iFIT, which owns NordicTrack, is seeking a valuation in excess of the $7 billion it fetched in its most recent round of funding in late 2020.
Founded in 2015 by trainer Kayla Itsines and CEO Tobi Pearce, Sweat “has engaged with millions of women around the world in their journeys to become healthier, stronger and more confident.” The Sweat platform is powered by a team of personal trainers and offers over 5,000 unique workouts across 26 exercise programs ranging from high-intensity interval training and strength to yoga, barre and Pilates. Sweat Co-Founders Itsines and Pearce will continue to lead the Sweat business in their existing roles, with the company remaining headquartered in Adelaide, Australia.
Working with the Sweat team, iFIT tap its over four decades of experience in the connected fitness space to strengthen the Sweat member experience, build brand presence in key international markets, and grow and diversify content offerings, including the introduction of cardio-based and equipment workouts in the coming months. The acquisition will also provide opportunities for iFIT and Sweat to collaborate on content development. iFIT plans to support job growth in the Sweat business over the near- and long-term across product, engineering, marketing and content divisions.
“Kayla, Tobi and the team at Sweat have built an incredible brand and community of fitness enthusiasts,” said Scott Watterson, CEO and founder of iFIT. “We are delighted to welcome Kayla’s authentic fitness training and charismatic personality—along with all of Sweat’s other star trainers—to the iFIT family.”
“Our two founder-led businesses are highly complementary and this acquisition extends our market reach into new geographies, demographics and fitness preferences spanning both home and commercial markets globally. We have a shared vision of helping people around the world achieve their goals for health and well-being.”
Watterson added, “The addition of Sweat will allow iFIT to further expand our membership base as well as add new fitness genres and modalities to our fast-growing subscription business, giving our company a tremendous competitive advantage.”
“We have long admired iFIT as a fitness industry leader and are proud to join the iFIT family,” said Sweat CEO and Co-Founder Tobi Pearce. “We look forward to working with Scott and his leadership team to accelerate our global expansion and further enhance the consumer experience for Sweat as part of the iFIT ecosystem. iFIT enables us to create a breadth of engaging new content to fulfill the rapidly growing fitness needs of our members around the world.”
Sweat Co-Founder Kayla Itsines said the acquisition represented a new chapter in the company’s history.
“Sweat has had an incredible journey from our humble beginnings training women one-on-one in my Adelaide backyard to launching the Sweat App in 2015 to now joining the iFIT family,” Itsines said. “Sweat was founded on our simple belief that fitness can genuinely help women improve their confidence, health and quality of life. Through iFIT’s strategic leadership, we will be able to create new world class fitness content and product experiences to support more women on their fitness path forward.”
“IFIT’s acquisition has opened the door to an exciting new future for Sweat where we can deliver greater fitness variety, choice and value for women everywhere.”
Photo courtesy Sweat
