S’pore fitness app making profits after 6 months

SINGAPORE — In less than six months, a Singapore tech company has already hit a turnover of S$1 million and achieved profitability.

Passport Asia, a mobile-only booking system for gyms, has seen an accelerated start.

Set up by two founders, the company — whose investors now include group CEO of SingPost Wolfgang Baier and managing director of Boston Consulting Group (Singapore) Bernd Waltermann — has grown to a staff of more than 30 in only half a year.

With a soft launch in March and its official launch in June, the company racked up its first S$1 million in sales in October, and attained profitability the same month, with profits about 15 to 20 per cent of gross margins.

The tech company targets a niche market segment: Health enthusiasts interested in working out or signing up for classes at gyms.

For a monthly fee, the app gives members access to more than 300 partner gyms in Singapore, with the most popular class sign-ups being 
yoga, circuit training and dance classes. Membership costs S$99 for unlimited sessions and S$59 for four activities a month, while a trial pass starts from S$9.99 for one session. To date, the app, available on Apple and Android, has been downloaded 30,000 times in Singapore.

Co-founder Sanjey Chandran said the idea for Passport Asia was born while trying to solve a problem. A jiu-jitsu and gym enthusiast, Mr Chandran said he and some of his fitness-conscious friends found themselves paying for several gym memberships each month as they sought to enjoy the different activities offered by different fitness centres. A single membership providing access to various activities at different locations would take care of that, he thought.

“We (my friends and I) had the same problems … With me being a jiu-jitsu enthusiast, my core fitness regime circles around that. However, I also like to do other activities: Yoga, strength and conditioning in the weight room, rock climbing. After a while I started to have three to four memberships that cost quite a bit,” said Mr Chandran, who goes to the gym five times a week.

He also noticed that some of his friends, who were trying to lose weight, started to lose their motivation because of a lack of variety in their fitness programmes.

“My friends were motivated at the start to lose a (few) kilos, but after a while things got mundane and boring. They wanted to do a variety of things and it was getting very expensive with the different memberships,” he said.

The company’s quick achievement can be attributed to detailed analysis in the research and development of the product and careful marketing strategies.

Some entrepreneurs spend irrationally, by trying to grow the business into overseas markets without careful early consideration, said chief executive Sharad Lal. “Our heart was, before we do all that, we want to get the model right,” he said.

User experience was the priority, said Mr Lal, and there have been 34 iterations of the app so far.

“We wanted to create a business model that was sustainable and works. Most of the customers that come to us have a great experience. The retention rate is high.”

Mr Chandran said: “For a tech start-up barely six months from launching, to hit profitability now is a huge milestone, not just for us, but for the mobile tech space in general, and Singapore’s start-up ecosystem.

“We are the only fitness-sharing app in Asia that is profitable, and I believe we have cracked the mobile fitness-sharing model in a way that ensures sustained, defendable growth over the long term.”

In the past few weeks, Passport Asia has launched in India (Delhi and Gurgaon), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) and South Korea (Seoul). The company plans to expand to more than 12 cities by the second quarter of next year.

On longer-term plans, the company said it wishes to be the largest gym aggregator in Asia in five years, and will look to other aspects such as health food and apparel to provide an all-rounded brand concept.