Online Gym Network payasUgym Beefs Up With Further $1.4M Funding, Hints At International Expansion

London-based payasUgym, a site that lets users search for and buy a discounted pass to a local gym, has announced that it’s raised a further round of funding: £900,000 (~$1.4m) led by existing investor Supremum Capital, along with other unnamed private investors. This brings the total raised by the 2011 founded company to £2 million.

Billed as an online gym network that aims to introduce flexibility to the fitness market, payasUgym makes it easy for consumers to shop around and purchase gym access on a pay-as-you-go basis or short term memberships from one month to three months at a discount compared to the price they’d pay at the door. Users simply register with the site and then buy credit, which they top up akin to a prepaid mobile phone. Gyms and health clubs can be searched by locality, and passes are sent to a user’s phone by SMS.

Since its launch two years ago, the startup has signed up over 1,000 gyms and health clubs, which it says represents almost 20% of the market in the UK. It also claims to be doing around 2 million customer gym search requests per month.

PayasUgym’s CEO and co-founder Jamie Ward says that the new capital will be used to fuel growth and develop new services. Meanwhile, the UK startup is hinting at plans to take the concept further afield, so international expansion could be up next. Claiming to be first to market, which I find surprising, Ward tells me that Brazil’s Gympass currently comes closest as a potential competitor.

Denis Shafranik, Partner of Supremum Capital, says in a statement: “We believe that the UK gym market is the tip of the iceberg for the payasUgym.com concept and are delighted to have been involved with the company’s growth over the last year.”