Introduction 

Joseph Pilates  famously said “Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness yet very few people are able to focus on it over long periods of time”, this quote holds true now more than ever in an era as the awareness on fitness and healthcare in general has skyrocketed post the pandemic. But there are major challenges in this segment where good trainers don’t have the bandwidth to serve more clients  and even the best solutions are restricted to video calls. Every single year, millions try to get fit. Despite having so many options such as Gyms, video streaming and hundreds of fitness apps, a small fraction of them continue to work out for more than a few months.

BurnCal which consists of Chetan, Kunal, Vichar and Anik had an answer to this massive challenge.

Chetan is the cofounder and Head of Sales at BurnCal has over 4 years of experience in Business Development and Sales activities in his previous start-up Drone Nation. Kunal is another co-founder and head of technology development at BurnCal he did his Computer Science Engineering from IIT Bombay. Vichar who is another cofounder and the head of product has over 4+ years of experience in UAV/Drone Industry. Vichar and Chetan together co-founded Drone Nation, a drone based image processing company which later got acquired. Anik who heads their marketing and operations has more than 6 years of experience working in startups, SMEs and enterprise. 

After their first start-up Vichar and Chetan realized the stress associated with running a young start-up had taken a toll on their body, this motivated Chetan to focus the next few months on his health right from the exercises to the science behind food intake leading to him lose over 30 kilos in a span of few months. This further motivated him to get certified as a trainer and help others who faced similar issues. Anik and Kunal having regularly followed a workout regime for the past few years were truly fascinated  by the overall effects physical fitness had on one’s productivity and well-being. When the entire group sat together during the time when pandemic was at its peak they realized it was the right time to turn their mutual passion into a great product that could truly help a lot of people struggling with their fitness but along with their passion what truly set them apart was their mutual experience in the Computer Vision Technology which combined with fitness could unlock the next big wave of opportunity in this domain.

Market Opportunity

According to the Valuates Report, the Global Fitness App Market size is expected to grow from $3.3 Billion in 2019 to $13.2 Billion by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 25.61%, while the Indian markets alone is expected to cross $1 Billion by the end of 2021. According to a latest study conducted by a top fitness magazine Healthy & Fit predicts that over 60% of all current offline fitness medium’s will shift to a complete online medium by 2022 as over 70% of all customers are shifting to home based online fitness applications. These are huge trends that hints towards an existence of blue ocean in the domain.

Investment Thesis

Based on our extensive market research we found there were gaps in the online fitness space and realised that the key issue was people desired a one to one training regime that would custom cater to their specific fitness goals but currently the entire market was just flooded with marketplaces or aggregators which just provided a platform to connect or played pre-recorded videos with little to no personalisation.  

Another major issue was serious lack of motivation combined with the scare of pandemic that had led to a plunging gym market. With most customers focusing on home fitness, the trainers now had to look for ways to keep their existing clients hooked while utilising their time properly to maximise the revenues.

Thus when BurnCal connected with us we found that they had a proprietary computer vision based technology that could track 20 key joints of human body using a camera based device to understand the way a user moves during a workout, thus constantly providing a corrective posture feedback, count the user’s repetition and provide an immersive experience like having a human trainer next to the user. They currently charge their consumers $30 a month. United by a common passion for fitness, Burncal is founded by a team of serial entrepreneurs who are alumni of BITS Pilani, IIT Bombay and University of Rochester, NY. Burncal augments the expertise of a personal trainer using technology to provide a personalized fitness experience at scale like no one else. The proprietary computer vision technology of Burncal automatically checks the form, counts the reps and holds the user accountable while they workout. Instant feedback helps one improve their form, avoid injuries and get the results they deserve.The past 12 months have seen most of the fitness routines completely transformed. Accelerated by COVID-19, the entire fitness industry is moving online and growing rapidly at 30% CAGR. For many people, however, once the secrets of home fitness have been unlocked, they may never want to visit the gym again. They have the potential to disrupt the global $100 bill fitness industry, starting here in India.

Conclusion

Exceptional team with solid experience in the domain coupled with huge market potential with the possible creation of a blue ocean makes 100X.VC excited to be a part of their growth story. We at 100X.VC believe that the founders have truly created an application that is poised to become the next breakthrough story of the Indian ecosystem.