Business

Brazilian startup behind fitness app RadarFit raises BRL 3 million in seed round

Led by DOMO Invest and Bossa Nova Investimentos funds and with the participation of G2 Capital, the new contribution will be used to improve the solution, expand the marketing team and structure data. RadarFit has users in thirty countries

RadarFit's founders (left to right): Jennifer De Faria, Tatiany Ribeiro and Jade Utsch. Photo: RadarFit/Courtesy

Anna Lima

15.Jun.2021 18:26 BRT

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RadarFit, the Brazilian startup behind the health and wellness application that bears the same name, announced on Tuesday a BRL 3 million seed round led by funds DOMO Invest and Bossa Nova, with G2 Capital as reserve fund.

Founded by Jade Utsch, Tatiany Duarte and Jennifer Faria in Belo Horizonte, the startup claims to have grown 1,600% in 2020 during the pandemic – in a calculation that takes into account revenue, number of users and technology – in relation to 2019 results. “Our expectation was to have achieved 300% growth,” recalls Utsch, co-founder and CEO, in an interview with LABS.

The online game app works with daily paths of personalized healthy missions using artificial intelligence. In the app, when performing the challenges, users earn rewards (medals) and accumulate coins to exchange for real prizes, in addition to participating in rankings and tournaments. The user can create their avatar in 3D and have access to personalized training, to be carried out at home or outdoors, based on the stipulated goal (to lose weight, strengthen or maintain healthy habits) and on their profile (age, height, weight and gender).

“There is a new RadarFit now with 3D avatars and the possibility of customization and interaction with friends. We will take to our users an artificial intelligence that, through Fê, our virtual assistant, will be able to help them even more to reach their goals, it’s as if she were a personal trainer, nutritionist and private psychologist,” says Tatiany Duarte, co-founder and CTO.

According to Utsch, the startup, which started operations in 2017, raised a pre-seed round at the end of 2018 worth BRL 1.15 million – also led by DOMO Invest – and, in 2020, reached break-even, when it started to make a profit. It was also in 2020 that the company decided to launch the app to the end-user.

Operating in thirty countries such as Brazil, the United States and in Latin American and European markets, RadarFit offers the solution for individuals or companies. When the service is for companies, HR has access to the data dashboard to track usage metrics and results of improvement in employees’ health.

Although with an expressive presence in several markets, Utsch explains that the process of opening the solution in other countries happened naturally, due to multinational companies that acquired and made the application available to their teams in different locations. “Within twelve months, we will start an internationalization process,” she says, referring to the endeavor of actively seeking to scale the end-user base (B2C strategy).

On the business front with other companies, the exec reveals that another driving factor for the startup‘s growth was the partnership with GymPass, in which the startup‘s solution is made available to users of the fitness and wellness application.

With 40 thousand users (in the sum of end-users and employees of companies that hire the solution), RadarFit costs BRL 4.90 monthly, per employee, to companies. In the B2C model, the paid application (premium, without ads) costs R$ 15.90 per month to the end user.

From January to May 2021, Utsch reveals that the startup grew around 100% its user base and revenue, compared to the same time period in 2020. Currently, 15 thousand out of the 40 thousand users come from the B2C strategy. According to the exec, 70% of these end-users are engaged, that is, they use the application recurrently.

“It was a long journey of product development, business model and initial development of the company in the market, but now we are going to turn the page with a focus on expanding our presence in the market”, she says.

RadarFit will aim the new seed capital at improving the solution, expanding the marketing team, and structuring the data it collects. The goal is to reach one million people by 2021, allowing these users to connect with family, friends and co-workers with challenges linked to healthy missions.

“Our main goal is to inject resources into innovative and scalable businesses. We know how fundamental tech solutions are to keep the sector growing and we found in RadarFit a synergy and a great differential”, says João Kepler, CEO of Bossanova Investimentos, a manager that operates in investment fronts in the sports and wellness sector.

For Utsch, the round proves how the startup is consolidating itself in the Latin American market. In the region, the exec says that Mexico and Peru have brought significant growth to the startup‘s operations. “In Peru, growth was mainly driven by mining [client] companies, as a result of word-of-mouth marketing among employees.”