• The UAE-based fitness app Fitlov has raised $500,000 in a pre-Series A fundraise through angel investment.
• Founded in February 2018 by Alberto Pardo, Alvaro Zapata and Zena Hamdan, Fitlov is a one-stop-shop app that connects users with personal trainers, nutritionists, and physiotherapists.
• Fitlov will utilise its newly acquired funds to fuel its expansion into other regions as part of a possible long-term strategy. It will also further develop its platform and tech stack, expanding beyond being a service marketplace by leveraging AI to provide personalised assessment and recommendations for each user.

Press release:

The UAE-based fitness startup and on-demand personal training platform Fitlov has successfully raised $500,000 through angel investment in its latest pre-Series A fundraise. In doing so, Fitlov joins the latest streak of investments backing sports & fitness startups in the UAE. 

Founded in February 2018,  by childhood friends and fitness enthusiasts Alberto Pardo and Alvaro Zapata along with their partner Zena Hamdan, Fitlov launched as a ‘super app’ for fitness providing “a one-stop-shop app to get fit and build a healthy lifestyle”. The app connects users with personal trainers, nutritionists, and physiotherapists instantly. It not only allows users to get satisfy their physical needs and hit requirements, but it also provides them with a consolidated platform to track their progress and activity. 

We continue to observe a gradual trajectory towards later-stage deals in the UAE, as most recently recorded in our UAE Q3 2021 Venture Investment Report. Even though the early-stage deal (<$500,000) share of total transactions dropped by more than 60 per cent YoY, deals ranging between $500,000 and $3 million were observed an impressive 114 per cent in Q3 2021 compared to full-year 2020. This is in light of the UAE’s 34 per cent YoY drop in total funding rounds in 2021. The funding round closed by Fitlov follows a series of investments in the sports & fitness sector which included Enhance Fitness, Steppi, and Padel 26. 

Fitlov has been in the market for 3 years making significant progress. Today Fitlov has 13 full-time employees, a renowned regional angel investor, a full in-house tech team, and multiple partnerships with big corporates. Fitlov revenues grew 10x during 2020 despite COVID; in 2021 they continue to grow quickly. The simplicity, yet comprehensiveness of the platform, was at the core of their success as founder and CEO Alberto Pardo stated, “We follow a holistic approach in which our clients get paired with one trainer and one nutritionist to ensure they achieve their fitness/health results. Our fitness professionals are freelancers that choose to work with Fitlov because of the ease of working and good conditions.”

The UAE-based startup plans to utilise its newly acquired funds to fuel its expansion into other regions as part of a possible long-term strategy. This latest investment enables Fitlov to further develop its platform and tech stack, expanding beyond being a service marketplace by leveraging AI to provide personalised assessment and recommendations for each user. “We are concentrating our efforts on our new technology which we expect to launch in October 2021. We picked this idea because we believe there is a big gap in today's fitness & wellness offering, and people are more interested in fitness & wellness than ever before. We live in the age of the platform economy, however, there is no established platform connecting the best fitness & wellness specialists in a seamless manner. So we believe we can make a difference and help users live their healthiest version of life, and help the fitness & wellness professionals grow with the help of tech,” co-founder Zena Hamdan concluded.