upmysport, the platform designed to make it easier for people to meet recommended sport and fitness instructors in their area, has today announced a successful seed round of fundraising totalling GBP1 million.
The round was led by private investors working in partnership with Government-backed investment fund, the Angel CoFund.
Founded in early 2013 with a vision to be home to the best instructors in Europe, upmysport is designed to meet the need for a simple, digitally-based service for arranging sessions with reliable instructors in a chosen activity. The service allows you to browse through and book into private sessions or courses, updating your phone diary and taking payment in just one click. Users can also create a shortlist of their favourite instructors for easy future booking. For instructors, the app serves as a full relationship management and marketing tool.
The tech startup is based in Tech City in East London and in Chamonix, France. This investment round funding is the second raised by upmysport, who previously raised GBP150,000 under SEIS. Investors include business leaders and successful entrepreneurs from across Europe, all of whom share upmysport’s passion to fill the consumer technology gap in the instructor-led activity market and therefore help more people enjoy being active.
Lead angel investor Christian Lorenzen has been appointed to the board as Chairman, and is joined by fellow angel investor Ulrich Huber. Christian, former managing partner of Langholm Capital, has deep expertise in growing consumer brand businesses and is a keen skier, cyclist and sailor.
This latest funding will go towards further development of upmysport’s online and mobile offerings, and to support the development of strategic partnership opportunities. The startup has remained London-centric to date, and is now expanding its reach. In its latest partnership, the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust joins upmysport as a UK charity partner, giving the startup the opportunity to support underprivileged young people with their own active aims.
Nicola Broom, CEO and co-founder at upmysport, says: “The latest round of investment is incredibly exciting. With the market for instructor-led activity gaining ever more focus and growth, the investment puts us in a great position to turn our vision into a reality. The experience that the investors, such as the Angel CoFund, bring to the table is going to be invaluable as we look towards the best path to scale up.”
Tim Mills, investment director of Angel CoFund, says: “London has become an incredible breeding ground for tech startups but is also home to many people who are keen to learn new sports, build fitness or simply hone their talents. upmysport is focussed on helping consumers navigate the challenging process of finding the right coaching and tuition, making it effortless to locate, evaluate and hire professionals to suit their needs. Their platform fits a real need in the market – both in terms of digitizing the instructor-led activity market, but also in terms of enabling people to get more involved in sport and achieve the active lifestyle they want on the go.”
Christian Lorenzen, lead angel investor and Chairman of upmysport, says: “I am delighted to invest in upmysport and join the board as Chairman. This is a classic case of a tech startup tackling a real problem in a growing market, and one I share the team’s passion to solve. I first met the founders when discussing my own frustrations as a user of instructors, and I am confident we are well placed to tackle the problem with the high quality team and value adding investor group we now have.”