Cult.Fit – How 2 E-Commerce Gurus Built A Billion-Dollar Startup

The last two years of pandemic have made people realise the importance of their health and mental wellbeing. In order to promote a healthy lifestyle, many fitness professionals have also shared their workout regime through different social media platforms. However, it is not possible for every individual to keep up with the fitness trends each day. Keeping this in mind, the founders of Cult.Fit, Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori, launched a platform which allows you to train yourself as per your body type and health requirements anywhere at any time.  

Cult. Fit offers video-based live classes, on-demand fitness, yoga, and meditation sessions for all those people who don’t have much time to hit the gym on a regular basis.

In this blog, we will tell you everything about the emergence of Cult.Fit and how its founders achieved success.  

How did it begin? 

Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori were well settled in their jobs before becoming entrepreneurs. So, what compelled them to quit their secured careers and start their second innings as businessmen? Both Mukesh and Ankit wanted to enhance their portfolio as professionals and so they quit their jobs to take a big jump. They had looked at different industries before zeroing in on health and wellness. They opted for the health sector probably because five years ago the industry wasn’t disrupted by technology. Back in those days, there was no competition at all in the Holistic industry. 

While looking at the pain points in the field, Mukesh and Ankit came to know that people were not paying attention to their health and fitness in a proactive manner. During their research the two men also found out that chronic and lifestyle diseases are among the top leading causes of deaths in India. Therefore, they decided to dig deeper and fill this gap with a more integrated and holistic approach. 

Mukesh and Ankit used their engineering experience to build a platform that would let people train as per their Body Mass Index (BMI), how much sleep they get every day, water levels and overall body activity. And that’s how they launched Cult.Fit, formerly known as Cure.Fit in 2016. 

The Success of Cult.Fit

When Mukesh and Ankit launched Cult.Fit, they focused on three major aspects – fitness, diet and mental wellness. In the initial days, the brand used to have studios where they held Zumba classes, boxing, dancing, Yoga to make workouts a fun session. Later, it turned out to be a great success. Once they established their brand presence offline, the company launched its app in 2017. Since Cult.Fit was first in the industry as a digital platform, a lot of customers onboarded quickly. That’s how the brand picked up and is now continuing to grow.

During the COVID-19 lockdowns in the last two years, when all the Cult.Fit studios across the country had to shut down, the company pivoted to online home workouts for good mental health and well-being and diagnostics (telemedicine). 

Growth of the brand

Cult.Fit has had an intriguing journey so far. The company which began as just a small initiative to improve people’s health, has now gone on to become India’s leading fitness brand with a valuation of more than $1.5 billion.