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Fisikal | Fit Tech promotion
features

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

Published in Fit Tech 2021 issue 2

What is Active Giving?
Active Giving is a social fitness platform for good, which enables individuals to improve their personal wellbeing while contributing to the wellbeing of our planet. With the Active Giving fitness app, users can log their fitness and sport activities to support social and environmental projects.

By rewarding calories burned or kilometers covered with trees planted, Active Giving creates a sense of stewardship towards oneself and towards the planet, while promoting forward-thinking companies that seek to create positive brand awareness through sustainability-related marketing campaigns.


Active Giving wants to inspire people to live active and eco-conscious lives, engaging them in physical activities that not only benefit their own health but also the health of our planet, as these two are fundamentally linked.

Where did the idea come from?
Back in summer 2018, I organised my third solo cycling tour through Europe, and this time I wanted to raise awareness and money for a social project. I realised that it was quite difficult to manage such a campaign while cycling and to engage people in giving money for a cause they perhaps didn’t feel connected to, or didn’t have the financial resources to support.

While on my bike – I was cycling around 150kms a day – I thought, what if I could ask my community to cycle (or be active) with me from any place in the world, so that their activity, rather than a financial donation, could contribute to a cause. That’s when the idea of creating Active Giving came to me – to create a platform where physical activities can be turned into funding to support causes.

And how did you turn this idea into a reality?
As a sport and fitness enthusiast, I have always been amazed by the power of sport to unite and bring communities together. I’ve created different communities in the running and fitness scene in Berlin, Germany. So I started to organise events such as Urban Art Run, where we were collecting kilometers or calories burned and exchanging them into funds for different charitable organisations with the support of brand and corporate partners.

I also created a campaign on Instagram in summer 2019, which, for every fitness activity result shared in an IG story with the tag @active.giving, I would plant a certain number of trees. This went viral in Germany and some other countries – and after presenting the idea and winning during a Techstar Sustainable Start-up weekend, I realised it had the potential to become more. Then I gathered a team and we started to work on what became the Active Giving app, which was launched in 2020.

Tell us about the financial model
The Active Giving app is free for the users and works as a marketing platform for forward-thinking brands and companies who wish to support the active lifestyle of our users, while contributing to green projects.

Our app offers brand and logo placement to companies when a user starts and completes an activity in-app. Part of the revenues that Active Giving generates through logo placement is then invested into different social and environmental projects. The other part is invested into the company’s operations.

Apart from helping to fund environmental projects, what are the benefits for users?
Users can choose from six different projects to fund with their activities. Meanwhile, our Team functionality allows users to create their own team and challenges – this a tool that is aimed at creating more awareness about our planet and the importance of maintaining good health within a specific community.

By joining Active Giving, users have access to our network of #activators – our ambassadors – and can take part in Active Giving virtual classes and events as well as receiving affiliate benefits from our partners.

Our amazing community of users has now passed the bar of 225 million calories burned, and has helped to plant more than 500,000 trees with their fitness activities.

Do you plan to add more features or to upgrade?
Yes, it’s in our DNA to improve our services and product. We are planning to enable more interactions between users on the app, connecting users from all around the world. We’ll onboard new not-for-profit partners and allow users to financially support the projects they choose. We will also allow more integrations for our partners’ offers as well as integration with other fitness trackers.

What are your future goals for the app?
Our goals for the app are to become the daily companion of every individual wanting to maintain good health and have a positive impact on the world. We would love for the app to be integrated with worldwide sport competitions and organisations. The future of sports and fitness are dependent on the climate and the conditions of our living environments. Our goal is to positively influence the future of our planet by instilling a global vision of wellbeing and a sense of collective action.

Sign up here to get Fit Tech's weekly ezine and every issue of Fit Tech magazine free on digital.
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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
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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
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Fitronics will host its first-ever customer experience-focussed Summit, ConnectCX, on 3 October in Solihull, UK, in partnership with Proinsight.
PSLT Fitness Solutions manufacture, remanufacture and buy back commercial gym equipment. We supply and maintain ...
For over 50 years Les Mills has been leading the way in fitness to inspire ...
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features

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

Published in Fit Tech 2021 issue 2

What is Active Giving?
Active Giving is a social fitness platform for good, which enables individuals to improve their personal wellbeing while contributing to the wellbeing of our planet. With the Active Giving fitness app, users can log their fitness and sport activities to support social and environmental projects.

By rewarding calories burned or kilometers covered with trees planted, Active Giving creates a sense of stewardship towards oneself and towards the planet, while promoting forward-thinking companies that seek to create positive brand awareness through sustainability-related marketing campaigns.


Active Giving wants to inspire people to live active and eco-conscious lives, engaging them in physical activities that not only benefit their own health but also the health of our planet, as these two are fundamentally linked.

Where did the idea come from?
Back in summer 2018, I organised my third solo cycling tour through Europe, and this time I wanted to raise awareness and money for a social project. I realised that it was quite difficult to manage such a campaign while cycling and to engage people in giving money for a cause they perhaps didn’t feel connected to, or didn’t have the financial resources to support.

While on my bike – I was cycling around 150kms a day – I thought, what if I could ask my community to cycle (or be active) with me from any place in the world, so that their activity, rather than a financial donation, could contribute to a cause. That’s when the idea of creating Active Giving came to me – to create a platform where physical activities can be turned into funding to support causes.

And how did you turn this idea into a reality?
As a sport and fitness enthusiast, I have always been amazed by the power of sport to unite and bring communities together. I’ve created different communities in the running and fitness scene in Berlin, Germany. So I started to organise events such as Urban Art Run, where we were collecting kilometers or calories burned and exchanging them into funds for different charitable organisations with the support of brand and corporate partners.

I also created a campaign on Instagram in summer 2019, which, for every fitness activity result shared in an IG story with the tag @active.giving, I would plant a certain number of trees. This went viral in Germany and some other countries – and after presenting the idea and winning during a Techstar Sustainable Start-up weekend, I realised it had the potential to become more. Then I gathered a team and we started to work on what became the Active Giving app, which was launched in 2020.

Tell us about the financial model
The Active Giving app is free for the users and works as a marketing platform for forward-thinking brands and companies who wish to support the active lifestyle of our users, while contributing to green projects.

Our app offers brand and logo placement to companies when a user starts and completes an activity in-app. Part of the revenues that Active Giving generates through logo placement is then invested into different social and environmental projects. The other part is invested into the company’s operations.

Apart from helping to fund environmental projects, what are the benefits for users?
Users can choose from six different projects to fund with their activities. Meanwhile, our Team functionality allows users to create their own team and challenges – this a tool that is aimed at creating more awareness about our planet and the importance of maintaining good health within a specific community.

By joining Active Giving, users have access to our network of #activators – our ambassadors – and can take part in Active Giving virtual classes and events as well as receiving affiliate benefits from our partners.

Our amazing community of users has now passed the bar of 225 million calories burned, and has helped to plant more than 500,000 trees with their fitness activities.

Do you plan to add more features or to upgrade?
Yes, it’s in our DNA to improve our services and product. We are planning to enable more interactions between users on the app, connecting users from all around the world. We’ll onboard new not-for-profit partners and allow users to financially support the projects they choose. We will also allow more integrations for our partners’ offers as well as integration with other fitness trackers.

What are your future goals for the app?
Our goals for the app are to become the daily companion of every individual wanting to maintain good health and have a positive impact on the world. We would love for the app to be integrated with worldwide sport competitions and organisations. The future of sports and fitness are dependent on the climate and the conditions of our living environments. Our goal is to positively influence the future of our planet by instilling a global vision of wellbeing and a sense of collective action.

Sign up here to get Fit Tech's weekly ezine and every issue of Fit Tech magazine free on digital.
Gallery
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

Alexa can help you book classes, check trainers’ bios and schedules, find out opening times, and a host of other information
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

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We ended up raising US$7m in venture capital from incredible investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, Primetime Partners, and GingerBread Capital
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

35 million people a week participate in strength training. We want Brawn to help this audience achieve their goals
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