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Editor's letter: Big (fit) tech

We’re entering the age of the wellness mega-corp, with the ultimate goal for investors being to dominate health and wellness markets in every channel. Prepare to expect the unexpected in this convergence of health, fitness and wellness

Published in Fit Tech 2021 issue 1

The fit tech market continues to hurtle along, with major players building out their portfolios. Google’s acquisition of Fitbit and Peloton’s of Precor being recent, high profile examples.

Although each buy-out, merger or launch varies in scope and sequencing, the intended destination appears to be similar, regardless of the starting point.

Fundamentally, we’re seeing investors converging in a battle for the wellness consumer and control of the health agenda. Apple, Google, Peloton, Samsung and others are locked in a race to build out businesses which dominate all parts of the consumer health, fitness and wellness marketplace.

In a recent issue of Fit Tech magazine, for example, we talked to Samsung’s Sharon Hegarty about how the brand is creating a fully joined-up lifestyle portfolio. “We envisage a world in which somebody’s smart home and personal tech can support and react to their fitness regime,” said Hegarty. “Be it through suggesting a shopping list for meal planning, setting the lighting for a yoga session or optimising sleep quality.”

Samsung is not alone in this kind of wide-ranging ambition, as brands work to create frictionless wellness offerings which deliver for consumers in all areas of life – potentially extending to government and private health contracts eventually.

Although digital is the starting point for many fit tech investors, we all live location-based lives, so there will inevitably come a time when brick and mortar investments of some kind become part of these portfolios.

We ultimately expect to see big fit tech acquiring everything from gym aggregators, medical insurance companies and corporate wellness providers, to gym chains, high-street retail and home wellness tech providers.

The way things are shaping up, it’s likely many of these big fit tech businesses will end up a similar shape, once the key elements of their growth plans are in place.

Awareness of this trend will shape the way smaller and medium-sized companies invest, as they innovate and position for acquisition to complement the needs of investors who are pushing forward with consolidation.

This eco-system looks set to create fertile ground for development and growth at every level of the fit tech sector, in a world that will be obsessed with health for generations.

Liz Terry, editor, Fit Tech
[email protected]
@elizterry
Sign up here to get Fit Tech's weekly ezine and every issue of Fit Tech magazine free on digital.
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features

Editor's letter: Big (fit) tech

We’re entering the age of the wellness mega-corp, with the ultimate goal for investors being to dominate health and wellness markets in every channel. Prepare to expect the unexpected in this convergence of health, fitness and wellness

Published in Fit Tech 2021 issue 1

The fit tech market continues to hurtle along, with major players building out their portfolios. Google’s acquisition of Fitbit and Peloton’s of Precor being recent, high profile examples.

Although each buy-out, merger or launch varies in scope and sequencing, the intended destination appears to be similar, regardless of the starting point.

Fundamentally, we’re seeing investors converging in a battle for the wellness consumer and control of the health agenda. Apple, Google, Peloton, Samsung and others are locked in a race to build out businesses which dominate all parts of the consumer health, fitness and wellness marketplace.

In a recent issue of Fit Tech magazine, for example, we talked to Samsung’s Sharon Hegarty about how the brand is creating a fully joined-up lifestyle portfolio. “We envisage a world in which somebody’s smart home and personal tech can support and react to their fitness regime,” said Hegarty. “Be it through suggesting a shopping list for meal planning, setting the lighting for a yoga session or optimising sleep quality.”

Samsung is not alone in this kind of wide-ranging ambition, as brands work to create frictionless wellness offerings which deliver for consumers in all areas of life – potentially extending to government and private health contracts eventually.

Although digital is the starting point for many fit tech investors, we all live location-based lives, so there will inevitably come a time when brick and mortar investments of some kind become part of these portfolios.

We ultimately expect to see big fit tech acquiring everything from gym aggregators, medical insurance companies and corporate wellness providers, to gym chains, high-street retail and home wellness tech providers.

The way things are shaping up, it’s likely many of these big fit tech businesses will end up a similar shape, once the key elements of their growth plans are in place.

Awareness of this trend will shape the way smaller and medium-sized companies invest, as they innovate and position for acquisition to complement the needs of investors who are pushing forward with consolidation.

This eco-system looks set to create fertile ground for development and growth at every level of the fit tech sector, in a world that will be obsessed with health for generations.

Liz Terry, editor, Fit Tech
[email protected]
@elizterry
Sign up here to get Fit Tech's weekly ezine and every issue of Fit Tech magazine free on digital.
More features
Editor's letter

Into the fitaverse

Fitness is already among the top three markets in the metaverse, with new technology and partnerships driving real growth and consumer engagement that looks likely to spill over into health clubs, gyms and studios
Fit Tech people

Ali Jawad

Paralympic powerlifter and founder, Accessercise
Users can easily identify which facilities in the UK are accessible to the disabled community
Fit Tech people

Hannes Sjöblad

MD, DSruptive
We want to give our users an implantable tool that allows them to collect their health data at any time and in any setting
Fit Tech people

Jamie Buck

Co-founder, Active in Time
We created a solution called AiT Voice, which turns digital data into a spoken audio timetable that connects to phone systems
Profile

Fahad Alhagbani: reinventing fitness

Let’s live in the future to improve today
Opinion

Building on the blockchain

For small sports teams looking to compete with giants, blockchain can be a secret weapon explains Lars Rensing, CEO of Protokol
Innovation

Bold move

Our results showed a greater than 60 per cent reduction in falls for individuals who actively participated in Bold’s programme
App analysis

Check your form

Sency’s motion analysis technology is allowing users to check their technique as they exercise. Co-founder and CEO Gal Rotman explains how
Profile

New reality

Sam Cole, CEO of FitXR, talks to Fit Tech about taking digital workouts to the next level, with an immersive, virtual reality fitness club
Profile

Sohail Rashid

My vision was to create a platform that could improve the sport for lifters at all levels and attract more people, similar to how Strava, Peloton and Zwift have in other sports
Ageing

Reverse Ageing

Many apps help people track their health, but Humanity founders Peter Ward and Michael Geer have put the focus on ageing, to help users to see the direct repercussions of their habits. They talk to Steph Eaves
App analysis

Going hybrid

Workout Anytime created its app in partnership with Virtuagym. Workout Anytime’s Greg Maurer and Virtuagym’s Hugo Braam explain the process behind its creation
Research

Physical activity monitors boost activity levels

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have conducted a meta analysis of all relevant research and found that the body of evidence shows an impact
Editor's letter

Two-way coaching

Content providers have been hugely active in the fit tech market since the start of the pandemic. We expect the industry to move on from delivering these services on a ‘broadcast-only’ basis as two-way coaching becomes the new USP
Fit Tech People

Laurent Petit

Co-founder, Active Giving
The future of sports and fitness are dependent on the climate. Our goal is to positively influence the future of our planet by instilling a global vision of wellbeing and a sense of collective action
Fit Tech People

Adam Zeitsiff

CEO, Intelivideo
We don’t just create the technology and bail – we support our clients’ ongoing hybridisation efforts
Fit Tech People

Anantharaman Pattabiraman

CEO and co-founder, Auro
When you’re undertaking fitness activities, unless you’re on a stationary bike, in most cases it’s not safe or necessary to be tied to a screen, especially a small screen
Fit Tech People

Mike Hansen

Managing partner, Endorphinz
We noticed a big gap in the market – customers needed better insights but also recommendations on what to do, whether that be customer acquisition, content creation, marketing and more
More features