16 Aug 2023
Dragon Steven Bartlett invests in PT disruptor Until to drive UK and US growth
BY Tom Walker
Entrepreneur Steven Bartlett, perhaps most famous for his role in BBC's Dragon's Den, has invested in Until, provider of high-end workspaces for PTs and wellness professionals.
Until was launched in August 2021 with its first site in London’s Soho.
Located within the new Ilona Rose House near Tottenham Court Road tube station, the 8,500sq ft space includes 3,000sq ft of gym floor space, nine treatment rooms, eight coaching rooms, changing rooms and a performance suite.
Other specialist areas include podcast studios and private booths for video calls.
Until is the brainchild of investor Vishal Amin and Alex Pellew, a former marketing specialist with Adidas and Nike.
At Nike, Pellew led the redesign of Niketown London, driving a series of hybrid, digital and product experiences – most notably Nike+ and NikeID. Pellew is also the former president of Parkrun France.
Speaking to HCM in 2021, the founders said the vision is for Until to become the "first members club and workspace for health and wellness professionals" – somewhere they can use as a base and where they can bring their clients to deliver their services’.
Until says it currently has 250+ ‘customers’ in the form of PTs and wellness professionals who use its facilities regularly to deliver services to clients.
They report making better margins by doing so than if they deliver services via more conventional arrangements with health club operators for use of their facilities.
These 250 professionals were chosen by Until as being the ‘best of the best’ from 2,000 applications, indicating that the company is limiting numbers per site. Revenues in the two years since launch have been £1.75m ARR according to Amin.
Around 30,000 customers booked sessions with Until resident experts in its first trading year (August 2021 - August 2022), with members now delivering sessions at the rate of 5,000 a month.
In 2021 Amin and Pellow told HCM they planned to open 15 sites in three years but this rollout has not come to fruition.
The company has since opened only one additional location on Liverpool Street and has two more planned for London – in Marylebone, near Harley Street and Kensington later this year. Dentistry will be added to the Marylebone site.
With Bartlett’s involvement the company says it now plans to open 40 locations in the UK and US, although it isn’t yet clear how much Bartlett has invested, or how this will be funded.
Bartlett said: “I’m extremely proud to be joining Until as marketing co-founder and being part of a business that will change the health and wellness landscape forever.
"Supercharged by the pandemic, this industry is booming - the demand for training, treatment, and coaching has never been higher.
"Yet the health and wellness market is broken. Until is the necessary disruptive solution to an industry built on unfairness and has the potential to move this industry forward in a progressive way that champions the practitioners themselves."
Bartlett's joined the board of directors of Huel, a food replacement company, in 2020. Earlier this year he launched tech investment fund called Flight Story Fund, which invests in startups in the blockchain, biotech, health, commerce and technology sectors.
• To read the interview with the Until founders, click here for HCM Issue 10/2021.
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