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| Long-distance runner Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya is a co-founder of coaching app startup Kotcha. (Ishika Samant/Getty Images) |
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Running is the cheapest sport on Earth: All you need is a pair of shoes, some shorts and an old T-shirt, right?
Not if VCs have anything to say about it.
More venture capital than ever is pumping into the running industry, from energy gels to carbon-plated shoes. A boom in popularity for the sport and amateur athletes' newfound obsession with tracking their health metrics has blown open a once-niche market.
"It's the natural progression of people leaning on technology to optimize and push performance," said Florian Wojewodzki, a consumer investor at IRIS Ventures. "With wearables, with nutrition, with gear, everyone's pushing the boundaries to get that extra inch."
At the same time, a buzzy deal boosted confidence in the industry's exit potential. In April, Strava, which offers a sports tracking app that's become a mainstay of the global running community, acquired personalized coaching startup Runna.
Overnight, Runna, a startup born in London with under $10 million in VC funding, had access to Strava's distribution of 150 million athletes.
"It proved the point that we wobbled over," said Jon Wright, partner at JamJar Investments, a consumer-focused VC firm. Wright, who led Runna's Series A, had passed on the app a year prior for fear that the market opportunity was too small.
Strava, part fitness tracker and part social media, is itself eyeing an IPO as early as next year, the Financial Times reported in October, promising a long-awaited payout for investors like Sequoia and TCV.
It's also a leading brand in the expanding running economy: Running shoes and apparel alone are valued at over $90 billion, and growing, according to Mordor Intelligence.
I'm Rosie Bradbury, and this is The Weekend Pitch. You can reach me at rosie.bradbury@pitchbook.com or on X @_RosieBradbury. |
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Boston-based PE firm Abry Partners is raising as much as $1 billion for a continuation fund to extend its control of Centauri Health Solutions. What was Centauri's enterprise value when Abry originally acquired the company in 2020?
A) $325 million
B) $525 million
C) $725 million
D) $925 million
Find your answer at the bottom of The Weekend Pitch! |
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A selection from the past week's most-read articles.
- With data center investors showing little concern about exits, skepticism is growing about the future of hyperscalers' ambitious AI training projects. Read the full story
- AI is coming for drug discovery, and VCs are paying up for it. AI biotech companies raised $3.2 billion through September of this year, according to PitchBook research. Find out more
- Rosberg Ventures, run by Formula One champ Nico Rosberg, is eyeing a $100 million fund-of-funds. The firm closed its first vehicle on $100 million about a year ago. Read more
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"These acquisitions do make sense, both for EquityZen and Forge. They are playing in this niche market, where they're democratizing access for venture capital. And what's been happening with the almost four-year-long stalemate that venture's been in is that there are a lot of players in an increasingly smaller market on the top end."
—Emily Zheng, a senior VC analyst at PitchBook, discussing an uptick in venture secondary transactions like Morgan Stanley's acquisition of EquityZen and Charles Schwab's acquisition of Forge Global. Read more about major banks acquiring VC secondary specialists here. |
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Keep an eye out for these insights and research reports coming out this week:
- Q3 2025 Foodtech VC Trends
- Q3 2025 Global Private Market Fundraising Report
- Q3 2025 Emerging Tech Indicator
- 2026 US Venture Capital Outlook
- November 2025 Global Markets Snapshot
- 2026 Healthcare Outlook
- 2025 Japan Private Capital Breakdown
- Q3 2025 Pharma Biotools VC Trends
- Q3 2025 Aerospace and Defense Report
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Answer: A
Abry Partners originally acquired Centauri Health Solutions in 2020 when the company had an enterprise value of around $325 million. Read more about Abry's $1 billion continuation fund for Centauri here. |
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This edition of The Weekend Pitch was written by Rosie Bradbury and Nadine Manske. It was edited by Heather West and John Moore.
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