From time to time, a company undergoes a rebranding in order to represent a greater concept. Mark Zuckerberg, from the former Facebook, changed the company's name to Meta and guided all of the social network giant's efforts to develop a metaverse. Elon Musk dropped the name 'Twitter' after the acquisition in 2022 and replaced it with 'X' to represent a future of unlimited interactivity, in which the bird's social network would have everything from audio conversations to payments in cryptocurrencies.
Now the Gym session announces a similar route and is renamed Wellhub. The brand, which became known for its corporate benefits and gym check-ins, wants to enter once and for all into a global industry valued at more than US$5 trillion: the well-being market, according to a report from the Global Wellness Institute for 2022.
Of this amount, US$55 billion is related to companies, which indicates that the focus on the benefits segment is justified. A study by the former Gympass shows that 93% of employees say that well-being is as important as salary.
By offering everything on a single platform, Wellhub increases employee engagement and productivity, as well as driving ROI [retorno sobre investimentos] that companies seek, says co-founder and CEO Cesar Carvalho.
How did the platform come about?
Created by entrepreneurs Cesar Carvalho, Vinicius Ferriani and João Thayro, Gympass, now Wellhub, began in 2012 with the aim of reducing bureaucracy in access to gyms. A simple monthly subscription could unlock the turnstiles of gym rooms in Brazil, without the need to enroll or sign a lot of paperwork.
Two years later, he realized the advantage in B2B and never looked back. It continued to offer to the end user and began to serve, for the most part, large corporations such as the Activision Blizzard gaming group; the Santander bank; and the multinational consumer goods company Unilever.
It was at this pace that, in 2019, unicorn status and a generous contribution of 300 million dollars came. The well-being aspect came at the beginning of the pandemic: when he realized that social isolation would directly impact the future of the platform, he organized a new strategy and invested in partner apps and video classes within the app.
Companies like B3 and Colgate-Palmolive chose to launch Gympass even with gyms closed, but the company didn't escape without a hitch: it laid off around 20% of its employees during the year and only grew again in March 2021, around 10%. % month to month until July, when it received a new millionaire contribution led by the SoftBank Group.
Today, anyone who subscribes to the most basic Gympass plan already gains access to apps for sleep, nutrition, meditation and more, in addition, of course, to the 400 million check-ins at gyms in Brazil and 11 other countries. In 2022, Gympass purchased the Vitalk psychological support solution to strengthen its corporate mental health program, called Wellz, for an undisclosed amount.
Now in May, the new Gympass hits the market with a different logo and an unprecedented experience on the app, which now covers physical activity, therapy, nutrition, sleep quality and mindfulness. Along with all this, powerful financing: in August 2020, the company raised US$85 million in Series F and reached a valuation of US$2.4 billion. There has been US$555 million in funding since Gympass opened in 2012.
Wellhub
It will be interesting to see whether the name Wellhub will roll off the tongue as well as Gympass did in the mouths of Brazilians. At the end of February, the app registered 2.7 million subscribers and 15 thousand corporate customers in 11 countries, and became synonymous with a valuable benefit when hiring.
Even the advertising campaign that will launch Wellhub makes a joke about this: 'Now, no one will ask if you have a Gympass at a job interview or at the door of a gym. Wellhub'.
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