Danish startup Kollektiv, co-founded by an Olympian and World Champion Triathlete, has just raised €1.5 million. The team is building a Web3 ecosystem to democratize access to top-quality sports training, mentoring and support.
The sports world is inherently a competitive one and tech is increasingly becoming part of it. From being used for training and tracking to getting oversight over performance and building communities and networks, sport and tech is now intertwined and helping to boost athletic performance. It’s also now a crucial part of decentralizing sport, making training and athletic development more accessible to everyday people.
Aiming to become a part of this, bridging the gap between beginner and elite athletes, Kollektiv has just raised €1.5 million to enable creators to build hyper-personal training communities.
Funding details
The €1.5 million pre-seed round was led by Ugly Duckling Ventures and VF Ventures and supported by well-known angel investors including Kerstin Mogull (Former MD of Tate Group in the UK and former COO of BBC Future Media)
Kollektiv’s founding team also catches some attention – including an Olympian and World Champion athlete, a former sports industry CMO, and engineering and product experience from Uber, Boeing, SAP, Designit, Audi and Bragi.
The startup, founded by husband and wife team Ben and Helle Powell-Frederiksen, has already made over €160k in revenue since inception through its beta product and has users from over 55 countries spanning beginner to elite amateur athletes.
Ugly Duckling Ventures’ Andreas Rasmussen commented: “We chose to invest in Kollektiv, because we know the space, and know that Helle and Ben have a unique starting point to create an industry-defining product. Our conviction was driven by the fact that we have seen great execution on the product so far and are in love with the potential of what can happen when Web3 meets the Creator Economy of Health & Fitness.”
Creator-led athletic community
Founded in 2020, Kollektiv is building a Web3 ecosystem to enable physical activity creators to create a decentralized and community-led future of sport and fitness. The vision is to make the world’s leading coaches, athletes and experts, integrated into the performance journey of everyday people. It aims to give everyone with ambitions to accomplish goals, regardless of their background and ability, deserves the same opportunity to be trained, mentored, and supported by the best.
Ben Powell-Fredriksen explained: “Our 15 years on the elite side of human performance, exposed us to the reality that influential personalities (creators), capable of having a massive impact on the fitness and wellbeing of everyday people (consumers), are simply unaccessible and do not feature in the performance journey of everyday people. On the flip side, those personalities, contain incredible knowledge, experience and influence, but lack the tools to immerse themselves and impact everyday people. We know human performance and technology very well, and whilst these are hard problems, they can be solved. Our vision is to provide everyday people with affordable access to digital communities fronted by influential personalities, where the creators and consumers can build alongside one another.”
Serving both creators and end-consumers, today, the first creator-led community is live, acting as the company’s initial proof-of-concept, featuring multiple creators, with every community member receiving hyper-personalized training to fit their life’s schedule, planned upon subjective feedback and wearable data.
At the core of Kollektiv’s ecosystem is a novel technology layer, modelled upon leading sports science and human performance research.
The startup has been built upon extensive industry knowledge and prestige. Founder Ben is the former CMO of global cycling brand, CeramicSpeed and is extremely connected in the endurance sports world, having attended London Olympics 2012 as an athletic performance advisor. Helle is a former professional triathlete, Olympian and World Champion with over 15 years of coaching experience.
Together, the couple is now focused on using Kollektiv to turn their years of knowledge and experience from the sporting world into building a future where physical activity and health are a recognised economy, enabling their vast network of global creators to unlock their value to reach and benefit the health of the everyday person
Many successful companies have been built in training (Peloton and Zwift), in learning (Masterclass) and in the community (Strava). With this investment, Aarhus-based Kollektiv is bringing these three components into one Web3 ecosystem, bringing creators to the centre of revenue earning while bringing the everyday person closer to better physical health.
Kerstin Mogull, angel investor added: “From the outset, the Kollektiv team impressed me with their ability to combine a deep understanding of human performance, with an equally deep understanding of how technology can be deployed to have a scalable impact on everyday athletes. Together they offer a unique way for athletes of all ages and abilities to be surrounded by the icons of their favoured activity or sport: to be inspired, to get expert guidance and personalized training, all centred around a supportive community.”
