As part of a seismic deal, the new business has already secured $785 million in new funding earmarked for AI initiatives

Two of the biggest names in fitness and wellness tech are combining under one roof.

Playlist, the parent company of Mindbody, ClassPass and Booker, is merging with fit tech leader EGYM, valuing the combined company at $7.5 billion.

The transaction includes $785 million in new equity investments to fuel AI initiatives aimed at helping fitness studios, gyms and wellness operators drive more sustainable growth worldwide.

It also marks a pivot from Playlists’ earlier ambitions to go public. In 2024, the company (then known as Mindbody-ClassPass) had mulled a potential IPO. By 2025, however, the company reintroduced itself as Playlist, a new brand unifying fitness and wellness software platform Mindbody, booking app ClassPass and Booker, a software platform for spas and salons.

Affinity Partners is leading the new investment, with participation from a consortium of existing investors, including Vista Equity Partners, Temasek and L Catterton.

Playlist will maintain business as usual across its brands, with EGYM operating as a subsidiary within the portfolio. The two companies generated more than $800 million in net revenue last year, the companies say.

“This merger represents a pivotal moment for both our companies as we continue to build the infrastructure behind the world’s most meaningful in-person wellness experiences,” Playlist CEO Fritz Lanman said. “We’re inspired by what EGYM is doing to accelerate that vision with technology and corporate wellness solutions that power well-being at scale. By combining our geographies and complementary product portfolios, we’re uniting multiple layers of wellness — software, connected hardware, consumer booking and workplace well-being — into one global platform.”

Playlist CEO Fritz Lanman (credit: Playlist)

The merger also opens the door for the Munich, Germany-based EGYM to scale across Playlist’s core markets, including North America and Asia, while giving Playlist a stronger foothold in Europe and the broader EMEA region.

Lanman and EGYM co-founder and CEO Philipp Roesch-Schlanderer will both serve as co-founders of the new Playlist organization. Roesch-Schlanderer will also join Monti Saroya, the co-head of Vista Equity Partners’ Flagship Fund, as co-chairman of Playlist. 

Philipp Roesch-Schlanderer (credit: Playlist)

“Bringing EGYM together with the newly created Playlist under one roof represents a profound opportunity to impact lives through preventative health,” Roesch-Schlanderer said. “Together, we can reduce chronic disease, lower healthcare costs and make people healthier and happier by shifting the world from repair to prevention.”

EGYM’s offerings extend beyond its AI-powered individualized fitness programs, which gym operator EoS Fitness has tapped for its clubs. Through Wellpass, EGYM operates a corporate wellness marketplace that connects employees to gyms, digital health tools and nutrition resources.

As for what the future holds (and despite their heavy focus on AI), both Playlist and EGYM say they see new opportunities to deepen in-person wellness experiences.

Lanman, a former Microsoft executive who now invests in roughly 150 tech startups, has been vocal about his push for the fitness and wellness industry to fully embrace the AI era. But he’s also been quick to counter fears that the technology will make humans obsolete.

“I think it’s important for this industry to hear, from a tech person, … that we’re not going to be replaced by AI,” Lanman said at ATN’s Innovation Summit last year. “What it is going to do is empower and democratize the ability to do really deep and incredible analytics, really great personalized marketing and things like that to help businesses … grow and be more effective. So I see us heading toward an age of human augmentation, not substitution.”

The deal is the latest major consolidation move in fitness, following 2024’s merger between Orangetheory Fitness and Self Esteem Brands, the parent company of Anytime Fitness. It also comes amid a funding boom, with fitness and wellness startups pulling in $2 billion last year.