The Pale Fire Capital investment group reached an agreement to acquire a major stake in VirtualTraining, the Czech company behind the Rouvy indoor cycling and running software application. The deal is expected to close by the end of September.

The investment will fuel Rouvy’s mobile application for virtual cycling and running, with the goal to surpass the two million mark for its community of active users within the next five years.

“Since the beginning, our motivation has been driven by the prospect of providing athletes with a realistic cycling adventure at home. We’ve come a long way, and we now facilitate this experience through a proprietary technology called Augmented Routes. We are confident that our product offers a convincing experience and great entertainment, and we want to make the benefits available to a greater number of both advanced and occasional cyclists, triathletes and runners around the world. To do that, we’ve joined forces with PFC. We believe that, together with the investment group’s experienced professionals, we will build a strong global business that will bring together the indoor and outdoor worlds and make sports attractive to more people of various ages and backgrounds,” said VirtualTraining CEO Petr Samek.

“I discovered Rouvy as a user during the COVID-19 lockdown. I found out that it was a Czech venture only after virtually cycling hundreds of kilometers through the Alps and the Italian landscape. Petr Samek and his associates are doing a great job that puts their product on par with the best solutions available in the global market. The ambition to be second to none in the worldwide context and to create a highly entertaining and rewarding product has brought us together and has ultimately resulted in our close partnership. Our other partners at PFC are sports fans too, which is why we’re very happy to provide support for the further development of Rouvy,” comments Dušan Šenkypl, founding partner, Pale Fire Capital.

Photo courtesy Rouvy