French health wearables firm Withings today announced that it has acquired 8fit, makers of the workout/meal planning app of the same name. The news comes as hardware makers ranging from Apple and Samsung to Peloton and Mirror are taking an increasingly content-forward approach to the fitness space.
Berlin-based 8fit launched in 2014, growing into a full-service offering for fitness that includes everything from workouts like HIIT and boxing to yoga and meditation to recipes. The firm has raised $10 million to date, including a $7 million Series A in 2017. When we last checked in with the company back then, we reported noted they were already generating more than $1 million in monthly revenue, courtesy of subscription plans.
The play is a pretty obvious one for Withings, which has been building out a health hardware suite with a range of products from smartwatches to scales to fitness trackers. With 8fit, the company adds an important layer of content to its offerings, while building out an additional revenue stream that exists well beyond the initial hardware purchase.
“We now feel it’s key to enter the era of the ‘product-service-data,’ combining personal health data with personalized wellness plans, and further deliver on our mission to empower anyone to be healthier in the long-run,” Withings CEO Mathieu Letombe said in a release. “With the acquisition of 8fit, we are well placed to deliver a strategy that combines elegantly designed health devices, enhanced health data and experienced advice that is simple to adopt and designed specifically for our customers.”
The acquisition will find the company integrating 8fit’s offerings into its existing software suite, offering actionable insights based on the wealth of data the company’s devices collect. The company said it plans to invest an additional $30 million into building out its connected fitness offerings.
“From the services we offer, it’s clear that Withings and 8fit are aligned to help users achieve their health goals,” said 8fit CEO Lisette Fabian. “We are excited to combine Withings’ expertise in connected health devices that collect accurate, quality data with our fitness and nutrition plans. Together, we will provide our users with a more holistic health offering to help them lead healthier, happier lives.”
In recent years, fitness wearable makers have been making increased investments in the content space. Apple launched Fitness+ last year, as more users were searching for ways to workout outside of the gym during the pandemic. Google-owned Fitbit has its own $10/month premium service, which combines a deeper look at data with workouts. 8fit’s current offering is a pricey one, at $25 a month or $80 for a full year.
Regarding its price point, the company writes:
We’re not a free app because there’s no such thing as a free app. Some of the people you see in our app work at 8fit and there are many more faces behind the app that you can’t see. And we believe in fairly compensating people for their work. Creating 20-30 new workouts per month, publishing 20-30 new articles per month, and all the programming that goes into the app takes a lot of work.