Playbook, aiming to be the Patreon of fitness content, has raised an additional $9.3 million in Series A funding from E.ventures, Michael Ovitz, Abstract, Algae Ventures, Porsche Ventures and FJ Labs.
The pandemic has hit the personal trainer and fitness industry incredibly hard. With gyms closed, trainers’ primary funnel for new customers has been shut down or slowed. Playbook looks to give them a revenue stream through their content.
Playbook creators are given tools to create videos and grow their audience. Unlike many fitness startups, Playbook really focuses on the creator side of the business rather than the final end user, believing that trainers can attract their own audience if they have the right tools and a platform to monetize them.
The company pays creators who bring their own audience to the platform (via their own unique link) an 80% cut of all revenue from those users. If users come to the platform agnostic of a certain creator, the trainer gets paid out based on seconds watched.
For the end user, the pricing is simple — it’s an all-you-can-eat model with a monthly subscription priced at $15/month or $99/year.
Playbook raised $3 million in seed back in June. The company has also attracted an impressive roster of trainers to the platform, including Boss Everline, trainer to Kevin Hart; Magnus Lygdback, trainer to Gal Gadot and Alicia Vikander; and Don Saladino, trainer to Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively.
Playbook co-founder and CEO Jeff Krahel said the main focus for the company is to double down on the technology services offered to creators, and the rest will follow.
“That’s part of the reason we brought on Michael Ovitz as a strategic investor,” said Krahel. “We are a tech-driven talent agency, a great tech platform with tools for creators. The future of the company is around supporting creators, almost like an accelerator, to maximize impact.”
Krahel is joined by two co-founders: Michael Wojcieszek and Kasper Ødegaard.
This latest round brings Playbook’s total funding to $12.3 million.