12 May 2021
Valerie Bures, co-creator of Mrs Sporty, brings Vaha family fitness mirror to the UK
BY Tom Walker
Fit tech firm Vaha is launching its interactive fitness mirror into the UK home fitness market.
Vaha has been developed and founded by Valerie Bures – co-creator of Mrs Sporty, one of Europe’s largest women-only fitness chains, which has Steffi Graf as an investor.
The business has secured investment from Porsche Ventures and London investment firm Unbound. Also involved are HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, Global Founders Capital, TQ Ventures and RTP Global. In March 2020,
German international footballer and Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer has also joined the company as a partner.
Designed to act as a virtual personal trainer, the mirror uses a "hologram" to guide exercisers through workouts and offers live sessions as well as a library of 200 on-demand workouts.
Users can also book personal training sessions through Vaha, with trainers connecting live to the mirror and providing users with individual workouts.
Vaha also offers community functionality, with participants able to see the names of their "fellow classmates" live on the screen, replicating the experience of a real group training session.
Members can also interact with each other after their classes through the Vaha Facebook Community group.
Workout programmes are catered towards any training goal – from toning, strengthening and cardio to mobility – and include HIIT, yoga and Tabata.
The sessions have been developed using the concept of flow: the "sweet spot" where challenges are matched to users’ personal capabilities.
The UK becomes Vaha's second market, after launching in Germany in March 2020.
The firm enters the UK market with two products – the full-sized Vaha X and the Vaha S, a slightly smaller, more compact version with the same features, classes and trainers.
The Vaha S, which will launch in the UK only, can be purchased for either a one-time fee of £1,150, or in monthly instalments of £29 over 39 months.
The larger Vaha X can be purchased for either a one-time fee of £1,950 or in monthly instalments of £50 over 39 months.
Users will also need to pay a monthly membership of £39 to access the platform.
Rather than being an individual membership, however, each membership offers access to Vaha's training programmes and courses for the entire household to which the product is registered. Each membership also comes with a free personal training session.
Commenting on the UK launch, Bures said: “Our mission is to empower entire households to train however they want, whenever they want and with the world’s best personal trainers – all from the comfort of their own home.
“After the events of the past year, home fitness has never been more important. We want to help people around the world take their home workouts to the next level and bringing Vaha to a market as important as the UK is a big step towards that goal.”
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