Keep, a Beijing-based fitness technology unicorn, has raised USD 360 million in its latest Series F round, led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund, with the participation of Hillhouse Capital, Tencent, GGV, Bertelsmann Asia Investments (BAI), 5Y Capital, and Jenration Capital. The round values Beijing Calories Technology Co, the company behind the workout app Keep, at USD 2 billion, double the post-Series E valuation, 36Kr reported on Monday.
Officially launched in 2015, Keep has closed eight rounds of financing, bagging USD 600 million in total. It disclosed a USD 80 million E round in May, as the pandemic boosted demand for at-home workouts.
Keep refused to comment on the new valuation and said that it has no plans for an IPO so far when local media asked about it. The fitness company started as an online platform providing training lessons and allowing users to discuss and share tips. Over the past years, Keep beefed up its online offerings by introducing fitness influencers, such as YouTuber Pamela Reif and Zoey WildSaturday, as well as LesMills and Zumba classes. It has also extended its business to sell fitness equipment, wearable gadgets, apparel, healthy foods, treadmills, as well as stationary bikes, and added offline gyms, dubbed “Keepland.”
The company doesn’t plan to expand Keepland to a larger scale until it has a new business model. In the meantime the focus will be on the consumer goods business, 36Kr reported.
COVID-19 advanced the development of its livestreaming training classes. Per data from iResearch, more than 18 million devices accessed Keep in March 2020, a year-on-year growth of 23.2%. Keep claims to have 300 million registered users and 10 million members.
“GGV’s consistent investments in Keep reflects our positive attitude towards the fitness market and the bets on the new generation of healthy lifestyle trends,” said Li Haojun, the executive director at GGV, Keep’s biggest institutional shareholders, in a statement.
