The founders of a new pay-as-you-train fitness booking platform met on a degree apprenticeship – and say it provided them with a springboard for success.
SPORTL, based in London, aims to help anyone access gym classes in real-time via an app and recently raised 拢250,000 in pre-seed investment.
It launched in London this month and will look to expand across other major UK cities in the next 12 months.
Matthew Austin and Ryan Lovelock say the Bank of England scheme was 鈥渉ugely beneficial鈥�.聽
鈥淎t the time it wasn鈥檛 necessarily the typical route, as many people encouraged us to take the traditional path of going straight to university,鈥� they told 老九品茶Cloud.
鈥淗owever, the apprenticeship gave us the best of both worlds. We graduated with degrees while also gaining real, hands-on experience inside one of the world鈥檚 most respected financial institutions.聽
鈥淏eing surrounded by incredibly knowledgeable colleagues meant we had to mature quickly and develop a strong work ethic from an early stage in our careers.
鈥淲e quickly became close friends. Over time we moved into slightly different roles across finance and business, but we always shared an ambition to start a company together one day.
鈥淲hile working in corporate roles, we travelled frequently and found traditional gym memberships to be quite rigid and poor value if you weren鈥檛 consistently in one location. At the same time, it was surprisingly difficult to access quality gyms and studios flexibly without committing to a subscription.
鈥淭hat frustration sparked the idea for SPORTL. We started speaking with gym owners after work, explaining the concept and getting feedback, and quickly realised there was a clear gap in the market for a more flexible approach to fitness access.鈥�
The recent investment round saw participation from notable strategic partners and investors, including Kevin Hewitt, former EMEA chairman of FTI Consulting, who will also join as chairman of the board.
Other investors include James Hardy, former Deliveroo executive and co-founder of Bioniq, the personalised supplements company, and recruitment entrepreneur Jamie Hearne.
The founders both hail from grammar school backgrounds and said they have always been heavily involved in sport.聽
Matt grew up playing competitive cricket and represented Northern Victoria in Australia, while Ryan played golf to a high level and has since moved into bodybuilding and functional fitness.
鈥淎lthough our sporting interests were different, we both experienced first-hand the positive impact sport and fitness communities can have,鈥� they said.聽
鈥淲hen we later moved into corporate roles in the City, we found it surprisingly difficult to maintain that same connection to fitness, especially when trying to squeeze in workouts around long workdays.聽
鈥淭hat feeling that something was missing ultimately became one of the driving reasons we went on to build SPORTL.鈥�
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Despite building a fitness platform, neither Matt nor Ryan are particularly good at sitting still.聽
鈥淥utside of work we鈥檙e usually training for something; whether that鈥檚 HYROX competitions, long-distance running, or just the next challenge we鈥檝e set ourselves.
鈥淲e are actually both running the London Marathon this year. It will be our first time taking part, so we鈥檙e excited, although we鈥檙e sure it will be painful in equal measure.
鈥淟uckily, our weekly SPORTL run club has become a great way to keep the training consistent. We鈥檙e both running in support of two fantastic charities: the MS Society and Hospice UK.鈥�
SPORTL鈥檚 revenue comes from a small commission on each booking made through the platform.聽
It currently has a team of five – the two founders alongside two full-time team members and an intern. Lucy Gray, a well-known fitness influencer, recently joined as marketing manager, while business development and partnerships manager Sean Sevant previously worked with David Lloyd and has deep experience working with gyms and studios.
鈥淎s the platform grows, we also expect to raise further investment to support expansion and continue improving the product,鈥� said the founders.
鈥淥ur wider ambition is to make flexible fitness access the norm rather than the exception.鈥�