Munich-based Zing Coach, a health tech startup with an AI-powered fitness app, has secured $10M (approximately €9.34M) in Series A round of funding from Zubr Capital and Triple Point Capital.
This investment will help the company enhance its AI-powered fitness app, grow its team, and expand into new markets.
Viktar Dzenisevich, Investment Director and Partner at Zubr Capital, says, “When the first iPhone was released 17 years ago, it marked the beginning of the mobile app era, and innovation in the space has continued to exceed expectations with each passing year.”
“Today, with recent advancements in AI technology, apps have become pocket-sized assistants, offering personalised advice and feedback with human-like communication. Digital fitness, in particular, is a huge area of interest for consumers and we’re excited to support Zing Coach, a true leader in this space.”
“We believe this investment will enable the company to grow tenfold in the years ahead and pull ahead of its competitors in the growing fitness app market,” adds Dzenisevich.
An AI-powered solution for hyper-personalised fitness training
Research shows 54 per cent of the global population falls short of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) physical activity recommendations, with regular exercise preventing many health conditions.
Despite growing interest in healthy lifestyles, building new habits is challenging, with 54 per cent giving up within six months. Zing Coach addresses this by offering personalised AI-powered workouts that adapt to individual performance, vitals, activity levels, and health data, balancing progress and motivation.
Co-founded in 2021 by Shaolin Monk Walter Gjergja (Shi Xing Mi), Zing Coach leverages advanced technology and diverse user data to offer a personal training experience. Walter says, “Zing Coach aims to combat the low retention rate of fitness apps since many individuals download them and give up within days. In fact, SensorTower found our app holds a higher retention rate than any competing app.”
Unlike other fitness apps, Zing Coach doesn’t use quizzes to assess users. Instead, it utilises ZingLab, which includes advanced fitness tests, movement analysers powered by computer vision, and body composition scanners comparable to professional DEXA scanners, for accurate assessments.
Users are guided by an AI Coach that employs a large language model and a personalised tone of voice based on their emotional profile.
This AI Coach monitors form, tracks progress, provides tailored advice, and offers encouragement to keep users motivated throughout their fitness journey.
Research shows 63 per cent of fitness app users quit after one day and 91 per cent within 28 days. In contrast, Zing Coach’s AI-powered approach achieves better results. According to the company, users are 29 per cent more likely to continue using Zing Coach after the first day compared to competitor apps, and 25 per cent more likely to continue for a month or longer.
Zing Coach offers an “unrivalled” personalised fitness experience, with users having completed over a million workouts in the app. Since its launch in 2021, the app has garnered over one million downloads and continues to show month-over-month user growth of 25 per cent.
Co-founder Walter, says, “The shift towards AI has made ассess to AI workouts easy through mediums such as ChatGPT, but these workouts aren’t truly a pеrsоnalised experience. Unlike other AI fitness apps on the market, Zing Coach bridges the gap between technology and pеrsonаl trainers by using movement analyzers to provide live feedback and motivation to users.”
“We aim to build healthy habits, as 60 to 85 per cent of the global population doesn’t meet the WHO’s recommended levels of physical activity, which can lead to heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.”
“We are using our app to support a mоrе sustainable healthy lifestyle. Despite the growing interest in embracing healthy lifestyles, building new habits remains a challenge, with half of the people giving up on their physical activity goals within six months.”
“We give as much importance to empathy, support, guidance, and positivity, as to the actual cardio, strength, flexibility, and other training,” adds Walter.
Capital utilisation
The funds will empower Zing Coach to expand its team and enhance marketing initiatives to enter new global markets.
Additionally, it will further develop its AI Coach, which uses advanced analysis of user behaviour across text, audio, and video to personalise workouts and motivation strategies. After successful beta testing earlier this year, the AI Coach will roll out to all users this fall.
The company’s future plans include applying this technology to other fitness categories like pilates and yoga.
Tanya Parfenyuk, co-founder and CEO at Zing Coach, says, “We have experienced exponential growth in the past year, but the vast digital fitness coaching market remains largely untapped. We want to make leading a healthy lifestyle and achieving ambitious fitness goals attainable for all by providing highly personalised workout planning and guidance.”
“Typically, this would cost hundreds of dollars for just a few hours with a personal trainer — with Zing, it costs less than a cup of coffee each week. From a user’s perspective, our inclusion of applied practice and coaching sets us apart from traditional fitness platforms.”
“We’ve set the benchmark and this investment will ensure that we can maintain our lead in the market.”
Zing Coach has enhanced its personalised health and fitness offerings with innovations like a smartphone-based Body Composition Scanner and the acquisition of Zenia for real-time workout tracking.
In 2024, the company introduced the industry’s first AI-powered Flexibility Test and personalised stretching workouts to improve muscle flexibility.