Sport and health: Platform buys Urban Sports Club for $ 600 million

The Berlin fitness start-up Urban Sports Club (USC) has a new owner. The US platform Wellhub has taken over the company for around $ 600 million (currently around 511 million euros), as both sides announced. The purchase has been completed, the approvals of all responsible antitrust authorities were available, it said. The takeover had already been announced in spring.

USC offers sports subscriptions with which users can use all participating sports facilities such as fitness or yoga studios, swimming or climbing halls in several European countries. You then do not need your own membership for each individual facility, but can log in with the USC app. The company was founded at the end of 2012 by the entrepreneurs Moritz Kreppel and Benjamin Roth. So far, the Verdane investment company has been one of the largest investors. ProSiebenSat1 was also involved.

Wellhub, in turn, focuses primarily on business with corporate customers. Companies can enable their employees to sports courses through the platform. According to its own information, Wellhub is active with around 18,000 corporate customers in 18 countries. With the takeover of Urban Sports Club, the number of corporate customers should more than double.

The USC brand should initially be preserved, and the company continues to concentrate primarily on private customers, while Wellhub remains with the previous corporate customer strategy. The two founders Kreppel and Roth should continue to remain as bosses, it said.