Zwift Takes on Peloton with $450M Investment

Rachel Uranga

Rachel Uranga is dot.LA's Managing Editor, News. She is a former Mexico-based market correspondent at Reuters and has worked for several Southern California news outlets, including the Los Angeles Business Journal and the Los Angeles Daily News. She has covered everything from IPOs to immigration. Uranga is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and California State University Northridge. A Los Angeles native, she lives with her husband, son and their felines.

Zwift Takes on Peloton with $450M Investment

The pandemic has forced many gyms to close and emptied others, catapulting the at-home fitness industry.

Zwift, a social fitness application that lets users virtually train together on their treadmills and bikes, is taking advantage of the shift.

The Long Beach-based company announced Wednesday it raised $450 million to build out Zwift-branded "hardware' for fitness buffs that uses the company's 3-D generated worlds to ride or run alongside others. It's also looking to expand into esports as it builds out the 10 virtual worlds it offers in the platform. In the summer, Zwift hosted a virtual Tour de France in July.


But its growth has been hampered. Right now, users pay $14.99 a month for Zwift's software but must pair it with a third-party stationary bike or treadmill such as Bkool, Elite, Cylotronics. The company hasn't specified what hardware it aims to create, but offering a treadmill or cycle could help it go head-to-head with companies like Peloton, which last week reported its first quarterly profit after sales surged 172% as homebound customers stocked up.

Peloton recently dropped the cost of its basic bikes, which sell for $1,895. Their accompanying app costs $39 a month, although a $12.99 membership is available for those without the equipment.

"With this investment, Zwift is primed to operate in a broader fitness market and deliver on our ambition to provide gamified fitness through integrated software and hardware, to anyone who wants to have fun while getting fit at home," said Zwift CEO Eric Min in a statement.

The competition is heating up. This week, Apple announced that it will release Fitness Plus for $9.99 a month or $79.99 a year. The service offers workouts from the "world's best trainers" in yoga, cycling, dance and more with Apple Music integrated.

Since it launched in 2015, Zwift has registered more than 2.5 million accounts, according to the company.

The round was led KKR, accompanied by other investors including Permira, Specialized Bicycle Components' venture capital fund, Zone 5 Ventures and the Amazon Alexa Fund and existing investors including True, Highland Europe, Novator and Causeway Media.

https://twitter.com/racheluranga
rachel@dot.la

Subscribe to our newsletter to catch every headline.

How the 'Thrift Haul' Trend Boosted the Secondhand Ecommerce

Lon Harris
Lon Harris is a contributor to dot.LA. His work has also appeared on ScreenJunkies, RottenTomatoes and Inside Streaming.
How the 'Thrift Haul' Trend Boosted the Secondhand Ecommerce
Evan Xie

If you can believe it, it’s been more than a decade since rapper Macklemore extolled the virtues of thrift shopping in a viral music video. But while scouring the ranks of vintage clothing stores looking for the ultimate come-up may have waned in popularity since 2012, the online version of this activity is apparently thriving.

According to a new trend story from CNBC, interest in “reselling” platforms like Etsy-owned Depop and Poshmark has exploded in the years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. In an article that spends a frankly surprising amount of time focused on sellers receiving death threats before concluding that they’re “not the norm,” the network cites the usual belt-tightening ecommerce suspects – housebound individuals doing more of their shopping online coupled with inflation woes and recession fears – as the causes behind the uptick.

As for data, there’s a survey from Depop themselves, finding that 53% of respondents in the UK are more inclined to shop secondhand as living costs continue to rise. Additional research from Advance Market Analytics confirms the trend, citing not just increased demand for cheap clothes but the pressing need for a sustainable alternative to recycling clothing materials at its core.

The major popularity of “thrift haul” videos across social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok has also boosted the visibility of vintage clothes shopping and hunting for buried treasures. Teenage TikToker Jacklyn Wells scores millions of views on her thrift haul videos, only to get routinely mass-accused of greed for ratching up the Depop resell prices for her coolest finds and discoveries. Nonetheless, viral clips like Wells’ have helped to embed secondhand shopping apps more generally within online fashion culture. Fashion and beauty magazine Hunger now features a regular list of the hottest items on the re-sale market, with a focus on how to use them to recreate hot runway looks.

As with a lot of consumer and technology trends, the sudden surge of interest in second-hand clothing retailers was only partly organic. According to The Drum, ecommerce apps Vinted, eBay, and Depop have collectively spent around $120 million on advertising throughout the last few years, promoting the recent vintage shopping boom and helping to normalize second-hand shopping. This includes conventional advertising, of course, but also deals with online influencers to post content like “thrift haul” videos, along with shoutouts for where to track down the best finds.

Reselling platforms have naturally responded to the increase in visibility with new features (as well as a predictable hike in transaction fees). Poshmark recently introduced livestreamed “Posh Shows” during which sellers can host auctions or provide deeper insight into their inventory. Depop, meanwhile, has introduced a “Make Offer” option to fully integrate the bartering and negotiation process into the app, rather than forcing buyers and sellers to text or Direct Message one another elsewhere. (The platform formerly had a comments section on product pages, but shut this option down after finding that it led to arguments, and wasn’t particularly helpful in making purchase decisions.)

Now that it’s clear there’s money to be made in online thrift stores, larger and more established brands and retailers are also pushing their way into the space. H&M and Target have both partnered with online thrift store ThredUp on featured collections of previously-worn clothing. A new “curated” resale collection from Tommy Hilfiger – featuring minorly damaged items that were returned to its retail stores – was developed and promoted through a partnership with Depop, which has also teamed with Kellogg’s on a line of Pop-Tarts-inspired wear. J.Crew is even bringing back its classic ‘80s Rollneck Sweater in a nod to the renewed interest in all things vintage.

Still, with any surge of popularity and visibility, there must also come an accompanying backlash. In a sharp editorial this week for Arizona University’s Daily Wildcat, thrift shopping enthusiast Luke Lawson makes the case that sites like Depop are “gentrifying fashion,” stripping communities of local thrift stores that provide a valuable public service, particularly for members of low-income communities. As well, UK tabloids are routinely filled with secondhand shopping horror stories these days, another evidence point as to their increased visibility among British consumers specifically, not to mention the general dangers of buying personal items from strangers you met over the internet. - Lon Harris

Here’s What Happened in LA’s Entertainment Tech World This Week 🍿

How Token and Tixr plan to take on Ticketmaster in L.A.

What is ‘embodied audio?’ And can it help pro sports teams fill their stadiums?

Social Media 📱 

Five takeaways from TikTok’s congressional hearing.

How the TikTok ban could impact LA employees.

With a TikTok ban on the horizon, Zigazoo is working to attract teens.

Clean Tech ♻️

Mullen Automotive pays millions to settle lawsuit with Qiantu.

Why are lithium prices falling?

Relativity Space launches world’s first 3D-printed rocket, but falls short of orbit.

Generative AI apps still have a long way to go before they start swaying elections.

Listen Up 🎧

Behind Her Empire: ComplYant Founder and CEO Shiloh Johnson on helping small businesses.

LA Venture: B Capital’s Howard Morgan on what to look for in potential founders.

Office Hours: VC legend Bill Gurley on startups, venture capital and scaling.

Also 💬

Without neuromarketing, tech firms’ ads get lost in the noise.

How to startup: mission acquisition.

Virgin Orbit’s swift descent.

Adobe announces new generative AI app that doesn’t steal artists’ work.

Get caught up on this week's career moves in L.A.'s tech world with our weekly roundup.

And check out our weekly 'Raises' roundup of L.A. startups that raised capital this week.

How to Startup: Mission Acquisition

Spencer Rascoff

Spencer Rascoff serves as executive chairman of dot.LA. He is an entrepreneur and company leader who co-founded Zillow, Hotwire, dot.LA, Pacaso and Supernova, and who served as Zillow's CEO for a decade. During Spencer's time as CEO, Zillow won dozens of "best places to work" awards as it grew to over 4,500 employees, $3 billion in revenue, and $10 billion in market capitalization. Prior to Zillow, Spencer co-founded and was VP Corporate Development of Hotwire, which was sold to Expedia for $685 million in 2003. Through his startup studio and venture capital firm, 75 & Sunny, Spencer is an active angel investor in over 100 companies and is incubating several more.

How to Startup: Mission Acquisition

Numbers don’t lie, but often they don’t tell the whole story. If you look at the facts and figures alone, launching a startup seems like a daunting enterprise. It seems like a miracle anyone makes it out the other side.

  • 90% of startups around the world fail.
  • On average, it takes startups 2-3 years to turn a profit. (Venture funded startups take far longer.)
  • Post-seed round, fewer than 10% of startups go on to successfully raise a Series A investment.
  • Less than 1% of startups go public.
  • A startup only has a .00006% chance of becoming a unicorn.

Ouch.

Read moreShow less
https://twitter.com/spencerrascoff
https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencerrascoff/
admin@dot.la

From The Vault: VC Legend Bill Gurley On Startups, Venture Capital and Scaling

Spencer Rascoff

Spencer Rascoff serves as executive chairman of dot.LA. He is an entrepreneur and company leader who co-founded Zillow, Hotwire, dot.LA, Pacaso and Supernova, and who served as Zillow's CEO for a decade. During Spencer's time as CEO, Zillow won dozens of "best places to work" awards as it grew to over 4,500 employees, $3 billion in revenue, and $10 billion in market capitalization. Prior to Zillow, Spencer co-founded and was VP Corporate Development of Hotwire, which was sold to Expedia for $685 million in 2003. Through his startup studio and venture capital firm, 75 & Sunny, Spencer is an active angel investor in over 100 companies and is incubating several more.

Bill Gurley in a blue suit
Bill Gurley

This interview was originally published on December of 2020, and was recorded at the inaugural dot.LA Summit held October 27th & 28th.

One of my longtime favorite episodes of Office Hours was a few years ago when famed venture capitalist Bill Gurley and I talked about marketplace-based companies, how work-from-home will continue to accelerate business opportunities and his thoughts on big tech and antitrust.

Read moreShow less
https://twitter.com/spencerrascoff
https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencerrascoff/
admin@dot.la
RELATEDEDITOR'S PICKS
LA TECH JOBS
interchangeLA
Trending