Fitness tech just had its biggest consolidation play in years. Mindbody, Booker, ClassPass and EGYM are merging under a new parent company called Playlist, valued at $7.5 billion with $785 million in new equity investment led by Affinity Partners.
Brand Watch — Key Takeaways
- Playlist = Mindbody + Booker + ClassPass + EGYM. Valuation: $7.5 billion
- $785 million in new equity, led by Affinity Partners
- Fitness Ventures acquires 22 Crunch clubs + $50M investment in renovations
- Cymbiotika (supplements) raises $25M with Hailey Bieber, The Weeknd, and Zac Efron as investors
- Trend: M&A is replacing organic growth in post-2024 fitness tech
Playlist: The Biggest Fitness Tech Merger in Recent Memory
The deal is enormous. Mindbody (gym and studio management software), Booker (spa and salon SaaS), ClassPass (fitness class aggregator), and EGYM (connected fitness equipment and software) are combining under one parent entity, rebranded as Playlist.
Transaction value: $7.5 billion. New equity: $785 million, led by Affinity Partners — the fund founded by Jared Kushner. It's one of the largest funding rounds the fitness sector has ever seen.
The merger logic is clear: when growth rates slow, consolidation creates synergies (cross-data, cross-selling) and pricing power against gyms, studios, and fitness brands. ClassPass brings consumer distribution. EGYM brings hardware and training data. Mindbody brings the operator base. All in one platform.
What This Means for Fitness Operators
For gyms and studios, the impact is direct. Mindbody is one of the most widely used gym management software platforms globally. ClassPass sends traffic to thousands of operators. EGYM equips hundreds of clubs with connected equipment. Now all three get sold and integrated together.
The open question: does this consolidation reshape the fitness software market, or better service integration (one interface for everything)? The history of SaaS mega-mergers suggests both happen simultaneously.
Fitness Ventures Dominates the Crunch Network
Second notable deal: Fitness Ventures acquires 22 Harman Fitness locations in the Crunch system, with $50 million in announced investments to renovate acquired clubs in Southern California and Houston. Fitness Ventures becomes the largest franchise operator in the Crunch system in the United States.
This reflects a broader pattern: large franchise operators absorbing smaller ones. With rising operational costs (energy, labor), economies of scale have become a survival requirement for independent franchise operators.
Cymbiotika: Celebrity Capital Enters Supplements
In supplements, Cymbiotika closes a $25 million round with an unusual cap table: Hailey Bieber, The Weeknd, Zac Efron, Peggy Gou, and the Jonas Brothers are among the investors. The brand is betting on social prescription by high-reach personalities to build brand awareness.
This is a model systematizing across premium supplements: celebrities aren't just advertising anymore, they're taking equity stakes. The relationship between ambassador and brand changes entirely — and so does how they talk about products publicly.