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Active Lab finalists - Meet the startups in Fit-Tech
Following the ActiveLab Live! finale at the recent Active Uprising conference, we take a look at startups seeking to solve some of society’s biggest challenges through technology designed to get people active
FOUNDED: April 2014 FOUNDER: Melinda Nicci ACTIVE LAB - WINNER
Melinda Nicci
Baby2Body is a digital, personalised, health and wellbeing coach for pregnant women and mothers. The platform gives women a personalised coaching experience focused on helping the user to lead a healthy lifestyle during pregnancy and as a mother.
It uses machine learning to deliver a hyper-personalised coaching experience, helping women to feel supported and empowered during this important time in life. The startup is helping women to become happier, make healthier choices and ultimately have healthier babies, on a global scale – with 610,000 users across 50 different countries.
The Baby2Body app provides personalised health coaching
Innerstrength Health
FOUNDED: August 2011 FOUNDERS: Avril Copeland & Greg Balmer
Avril Copeland
Tech startup Innerstrength Health has two main products: TickerFit and Hacka Health.
TickerFit has been deployed to enable health professionals in primary care to deliver bespoke programmes of physical activity and education to patients who are at risk of developing a chronic condition.
Currently under development, Hacka Health, a technology to support children with long-term conditions. The company is already working with the NHS and HSE in Ireland and is piloting Hacka Health in the US throughout 2018.
FOUNDED: December 2014 FOUNDERS: Jason Keller & Chris Sharman
Jason Keller
null,This technology platform seeks to reverse the trend of mobile devices that leave children sedentary by making physical activity fun again for young users.
Children can undertake physical activities at home using the TopYa! Skills Game to join video challenges against other kids around the world via their mobile phones.
Schools or sports organisations and third-party content providers deliver the content through TopYa! helping to engage children in at-home practice in a fun, inspiring way like never before.
FOUNDED: January 2015 FOUNDERS: Ben Thompson, David Jackson, Tim Stevenson
Tim Stevenson and David Jackson
Founded in 2015, The School of Calisthenics is an online educational platform for people wanting to explore different ways of using their body weight to build strength and fitness.
As modern lifestyles strip exercise from our lives, calisthenics allows users to go back to basics and discover what the body alone is capable of.
The School of Calisthenics Framework provides students with a progressive system that enables them to learn various skills and movements in calisthenics, catering for all ability levels. The platform already has more than 110,000 users.
The School of Calisthenics helps people learn skills and movements
Activ84Health
FOUNDED: December 2015 FOUNDER: Roel Smolders
Roel Smolders
Activ84Health is the organisation behind Memoride – a virtual reality platform that allows users to freely explore known and new areas while being physically active, from within the safety and comfort of an indoor setting.
Memoride uses Google Street View images to allow those who are restricted indoors to virtually go outside again – re-opening a window to the world. Each user has full autonomy to create their own unique experience, and by promoting exploration the technology challenges the user to remain physically active and train their memory.
FOUNDED: October 2013 FOUNDERS: Dominic Fennell, Nishal Desai & Nick Evans
Dominic Fennell and Nishal Desai
imin is a data platform with a comprehensive source of real-time data on sport and fitness activities. The platform harnesses the latest technology to help people to find easier ways to be active. imin’s API is used by sports, health and wellness organisations to build apps that help people to easily find and book sport and fitness activities.
Sports clubs can use imin’s API to build apps that help people find and book activities
Walk With Path
FOUNDED: November 2014 FOUNDERS: Florian Puech & Lise Pape
Lise Pape
The team at Walk With Path develops wearable products that reduce the risk of falls in vulnerable individuals. Built to help the elderly and those suffering from chronic illnesses, these products help reduce the risk of injury and improve confidence when walking, ultimately helping individuals to maintain their independence and quality of life for longer. Products include Path Feel (a shoe with a haptic feedback system) and Path Finder (a shoe which provides visual cues to aid walking).
This browser-based insight platform is custom-built to meet the evolving needs of the sports and fitness sector. It combines registration data, online conversations and survey responses in one place, to allow fitness operators to better understand their customers and therefore meet their wants and needs more easily. It means that management can see the real-time impact of changes in the customer experience.
Fitness community Fit Link connects, promotes and rewards like-minded people and businesses who want to stay fit, healthy and happy. Users connect their activity tracker(s) to Fit Link in order to challenge, compete, compare and share with each other, with rewards offered for points gained using tracked miles. Fit Link is growing a global community, with members spread across 360 cities worldwide.
Find a Player is a smartphone app that has been billed as “a bit like Tinder for sports”. It connects people who want to play sports, with events in local areas, as well as simplifying game organisation to reduce the barriers. Find a Player makes it easier for people to organise, find and play over 140 different sports. The company won ‘Best Start Up App Company’ at the 2018 Sports Technology Start Up Awards.
Find a Player connects people who want to play sports
UnitChallenge
FOUNDED: September 2016 FOUNDER: Dominic Carroll
Dominic Carroll
This technology platform allows individuals of differing abilities and fitness levels to compete directly with one another across a range of different activities. The platform’s ‘normalisation engine’ creates a level playing field for every participant, regardless of their standard of fitness, physical capability, age or activity preferences. Its social interaction layer and inclusive proposition provide a single community for sporty achievers and novice participants alike.
UnitChallenge creates a level playing field for people of different fitness standards
ActiveLab 2019
The ActiveLab programme will return next year and ukactive is looking for prospective applicants. If you’re an ambitious product- or service-based startup with the potential to shape the future of the health and physical activity sector, email [email protected] or visit www.ukactive.com/activelab
Le Atelier by C.O.D.E. doesn't offer a standard bespoke service, it provides a highly
customised approach to designing massage beds and loungers in high-end wellness
environments. [more...]
Active Lab finalists - Meet the startups in Fit-Tech
Following the ActiveLab Live! finale at the recent Active Uprising conference, we take a look at startups seeking to solve some of society’s biggest challenges through technology designed to get people active
FOUNDED: April 2014 FOUNDER: Melinda Nicci ACTIVE LAB - WINNER
Melinda Nicci
Baby2Body is a digital, personalised, health and wellbeing coach for pregnant women and mothers. The platform gives women a personalised coaching experience focused on helping the user to lead a healthy lifestyle during pregnancy and as a mother.
It uses machine learning to deliver a hyper-personalised coaching experience, helping women to feel supported and empowered during this important time in life. The startup is helping women to become happier, make healthier choices and ultimately have healthier babies, on a global scale – with 610,000 users across 50 different countries.
The Baby2Body app provides personalised health coaching
Innerstrength Health
FOUNDED: August 2011 FOUNDERS: Avril Copeland & Greg Balmer
Avril Copeland
Tech startup Innerstrength Health has two main products: TickerFit and Hacka Health.
TickerFit has been deployed to enable health professionals in primary care to deliver bespoke programmes of physical activity and education to patients who are at risk of developing a chronic condition.
Currently under development, Hacka Health, a technology to support children with long-term conditions. The company is already working with the NHS and HSE in Ireland and is piloting Hacka Health in the US throughout 2018.
FOUNDED: December 2014 FOUNDERS: Jason Keller & Chris Sharman
Jason Keller
null,This technology platform seeks to reverse the trend of mobile devices that leave children sedentary by making physical activity fun again for young users.
Children can undertake physical activities at home using the TopYa! Skills Game to join video challenges against other kids around the world via their mobile phones.
Schools or sports organisations and third-party content providers deliver the content through TopYa! helping to engage children in at-home practice in a fun, inspiring way like never before.
FOUNDED: January 2015 FOUNDERS: Ben Thompson, David Jackson, Tim Stevenson
Tim Stevenson and David Jackson
Founded in 2015, The School of Calisthenics is an online educational platform for people wanting to explore different ways of using their body weight to build strength and fitness.
As modern lifestyles strip exercise from our lives, calisthenics allows users to go back to basics and discover what the body alone is capable of.
The School of Calisthenics Framework provides students with a progressive system that enables them to learn various skills and movements in calisthenics, catering for all ability levels. The platform already has more than 110,000 users.
The School of Calisthenics helps people learn skills and movements
Activ84Health
FOUNDED: December 2015 FOUNDER: Roel Smolders
Roel Smolders
Activ84Health is the organisation behind Memoride – a virtual reality platform that allows users to freely explore known and new areas while being physically active, from within the safety and comfort of an indoor setting.
Memoride uses Google Street View images to allow those who are restricted indoors to virtually go outside again – re-opening a window to the world. Each user has full autonomy to create their own unique experience, and by promoting exploration the technology challenges the user to remain physically active and train their memory.
FOUNDED: October 2013 FOUNDERS: Dominic Fennell, Nishal Desai & Nick Evans
Dominic Fennell and Nishal Desai
imin is a data platform with a comprehensive source of real-time data on sport and fitness activities. The platform harnesses the latest technology to help people to find easier ways to be active. imin’s API is used by sports, health and wellness organisations to build apps that help people to easily find and book sport and fitness activities.
Sports clubs can use imin’s API to build apps that help people find and book activities
Walk With Path
FOUNDED: November 2014 FOUNDERS: Florian Puech & Lise Pape
Lise Pape
The team at Walk With Path develops wearable products that reduce the risk of falls in vulnerable individuals. Built to help the elderly and those suffering from chronic illnesses, these products help reduce the risk of injury and improve confidence when walking, ultimately helping individuals to maintain their independence and quality of life for longer. Products include Path Feel (a shoe with a haptic feedback system) and Path Finder (a shoe which provides visual cues to aid walking).
This browser-based insight platform is custom-built to meet the evolving needs of the sports and fitness sector. It combines registration data, online conversations and survey responses in one place, to allow fitness operators to better understand their customers and therefore meet their wants and needs more easily. It means that management can see the real-time impact of changes in the customer experience.
Fitness community Fit Link connects, promotes and rewards like-minded people and businesses who want to stay fit, healthy and happy. Users connect their activity tracker(s) to Fit Link in order to challenge, compete, compare and share with each other, with rewards offered for points gained using tracked miles. Fit Link is growing a global community, with members spread across 360 cities worldwide.
Find a Player is a smartphone app that has been billed as “a bit like Tinder for sports”. It connects people who want to play sports, with events in local areas, as well as simplifying game organisation to reduce the barriers. Find a Player makes it easier for people to organise, find and play over 140 different sports. The company won ‘Best Start Up App Company’ at the 2018 Sports Technology Start Up Awards.
Find a Player connects people who want to play sports
UnitChallenge
FOUNDED: September 2016 FOUNDER: Dominic Carroll
Dominic Carroll
This technology platform allows individuals of differing abilities and fitness levels to compete directly with one another across a range of different activities. The platform’s ‘normalisation engine’ creates a level playing field for every participant, regardless of their standard of fitness, physical capability, age or activity preferences. Its social interaction layer and inclusive proposition provide a single community for sporty achievers and novice participants alike.
UnitChallenge creates a level playing field for people of different fitness standards
ActiveLab 2019
The ActiveLab programme will return next year and ukactive is looking for prospective applicants. If you’re an ambitious product- or service-based startup with the potential to shape the future of the health and physical activity sector, email [email protected] or visit www.ukactive.com/activelab
The Standards Authority for Touch in Cancer Care (SATCC) charity has announced its first five-
day Living with Cancer and Beyond retreat, which will be held at Carden Park Hotel and Spa in
Cheshire, UK, between 1 and 5 September.
Patmos Aktis, a Luxury Collection Resort and Spa, has opened in Greece, with a renovated and
rebranded wellness offering called Ansana Wellness and Spa.
The Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, an Autograph Collection property in Hawaii, US, has opened its
22,000 sq ft indoor-outdoor Spa at Mauna Kea as the final step in the property’s overall
renovation, which has cost more than US$180 million (€166 million, £140 mill
The UK spa review and discovery platform for consumers, the Good Spa Guide, has announced
it will host the Good Spa Guide Awards 2026 during an event on 16 November at Sopwell House
Hotel in St Albans, UK.
Eighty-four per cent of consumers now say wellness is a top priority in their lives, with this
percentage increasing year on year, according to a preview presentation of McKinsey’s Future of
Wellness 2026 research report.
Mass protests have been taking place since Monday 1 June in Albania over the development of
a luxury resort by Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner.
Global Wellness Day (GWD) marked its 15th anniversary on Saturday 13 June 2026, with the
theme: #JoyMagenta – a celebration of the healing qualities of simple gestures and activities
that spark joy.
Global luxury hospitality brand, Six Senses, has partnered with longevity healthcare provider,
HUM2N, to launch a clinic at Six Senses London, at The Whiteley.
As part of its first hotel partnership, Mayrlife – the medical health resort company known for its
site in Altaussee, Austria – has launched a day clinic at the Rosewood Vienna.
Premium London health club, KX Chelsea, will imminently unveil its most significant
redevelopment since its launch in 2002 to create an integrated wellness model combining
training, recovery and relaxation.
Le Atelier by C.O.D.E. doesn't offer a standard bespoke service, it provides a highly
customised approach to designing massage beds and loungers in high-end wellness
environments. [more...]
