RunMotion Coach announced completing a seed round of €300K from private investors, in order to contribute to its national and international expansion.
Launched in October 2018 on the App Store and in April 2019 on Google Play Store, RunMotion Coach is a personalised mobile coaching app for running. The app reached 100,000 users in June 2020, mainly in French-speaking countries (France, Switzerland, Belgium). Building on this success, RunMotion Coach is launching its international development in the US, UK and Spain this September.
While there are many tracking apps to measure your running activity, RunMotion Coach is a coaching app. The application allows everyone to achieve their goal in running, thanks to personalised training, on the road or on trail. And it works: 88% of users succeed in their goal.
“Running is a great way to keep fit and thrive. New runners or runners are looking for relevant, reliable and personalised advice. Our mission is to accompany all runners in search of advice and flexibility. Our training plans adapt each week to the life of the rider, depending on his condition and his availability,” noted Guillaume Adam, co-founder and CTO of co RunMotion (quote translated from French).
In France, almost two-thirds of runners feel a need for support according to the SportLab/FFA (2016) study.
“In a disrupted global economic environment, we are pleased to complete this first fundraiser with business angels who are passionate about running. It is important for us to continue to invest to bring even more service to nos users and accelerate our growth in France and internationally. Our ambition is to be the first digital coach in Europe between now and the 2024 Paris Olympic Games”, commented Romain Adam, co-founder and president of RunMotion (quote translated from French).
The creation of training plans is based on artificial intelligence developed in-house. The application offers the most accurate training looks on the market, thanks to the analysis of the race results of the runner and research work co-written by Guillaume Adaam at CNRS and MIT.
Motivational advice and messages are offered via a special relationship with a digital coach, by way of a 100% automated chatbot. The advice is based on training, recovery, physical and mental preparation to arrive ready on the the runner’s race day. The runner can even choose the personality of the coach: positive, authoritarian or philosopher.
“RunMotion has shown real traction in this coaching market from a compelling product and very intelligent technology. The expertise and passion of the founders is reflected in their innovation, benefiting a growing community of runners eager for quality personalized advice. I am very happy to join the shareholders and put my knowledge and my network at the service of this nugget, to which the players of the running sector should take serious interest”, said one of the new shareholders Benoit Mariani, founder and former CEO of GaitUp (quote translated from French).
RunMotion Coach fits into the rider’s connected environment since the app is compatible with Strava and some of the main smartwatches dedicated to sports: Garmin, Polar and Suunto.
RunMotion Coach’s business model is based on a ‘Freemium’ operation: the app is available for free with a discovery mode that allows users to test all the features for 15 days, then users continue in Free or Premium mode.
RunMotion Coach’s founders are, of course, runners. Guillaume Adam (CTO) was selected in the French athletics team over 1500m (3’38), and worked at CNRS and MIT on a research project on performance prediction in running. Romain Adam also has strong running credentials and a personal best of 2:38 in the marathon, having worked as former director of a startup accelerator The Village by CA, bringing business and finance skills that perfectly complement the profile of his twin brother. Finally, Paul Waroquier is a record holder of France Master (over 40 years) on Mile, an expert in sports motivation, author, coach for both recreational and experienced athletes and contributes to the app’s training programmes.
