{"id":47378,"date":"2025-08-06T07:32:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T07:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/47378\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T07:32:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T07:32:07","slug":"ex-afl-star-secures-400000-for-gym-pass-startup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/47378\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-AFL star secures $400,000 for gym pass startup"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former AFL player<\/a> has raised $400,000 for a new startup making it easier for athletes and everyday travellers to find single-day gym passes on the road.<\/p>\n

GymGoer, founded by ex-Sydney Swans and North Melbourne player Ryan Clarke, lets users search for nearby gyms and workout facilities offering short-term access.<\/p>\n

Speaking to SmartCompany on Wednesday, Clarke said GymGoer was inspired by the challenge of finding the right workout options while travelling through Europe and America.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was real annoying, really irritating, trying to find a gym, rocking up to a gym, then getting denied saying they\u2019re only for members, \u2018It\u2019s not the right time,\u2019 or, \u2018We\u2019re not open for the public,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it was just wasting about an hour every time I was trying to get the gym, all the times I was searching online and the information wasn\u2019t correct.\u201d<\/p>\n

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GymGoer allows users can pay for temporary passes, instead of signing long-term contracts they might not need, and sign gym waivers within the app itself.<\/p>\n

The platform offers free sign-ups for both users and gyms, with GymGoer taking commissions from each pass sold through the app.<\/p>\n

GymGoer will target inbound travellers to Melbourne first, and has offered credits to elite footballers to test the platform through the coming AFL off-season. <\/p>\n

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\u201cIt will be good to see the best athletes in Australia use the product and get a real insight of how they think about it,\u201d said Clarke. <\/p>\n

From there, Clarke hopes to expand into East Coast markets, particularly tourist hotspots popular with international travelers.<\/p>\n

Clarke highlighted Bali \u2014 another hotspot for fitness-focused holidaymakers \u2014 as a potential option for future expansion.<\/p>\n

The idea was developed through the Hyper Startup Studio, which runs an accelerator helping first-time founders bring their app ideas to fruition.<\/p>\n

It was a natural fit, said Sam Cust, director of Hyper Startup Studio \u2014 and part-time coach with the Sydney Swans reserve squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cRyan has gone out and finished up his AFL career, and realised, \u2018I want to go and actually start something now\u2019\u2026 Kudos to him for backing himself,\u201d said Cust.<\/p>\n

The accelerator built GymGoer to investor-ready status, allowing it to secure financial support from the likes of Matt Keogh, former CEO of Country Road and CCO of 7\/11.<\/p>\n

The investment has given GymGoer a valuation of $4.4 million, said Cust. <\/p>\n

GymGoer has also tapped Blake Beltram, co-founder of Classpass owner Mindbody, as an advisor. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously they\u2019re both very successful in their own fields, so I\u2019m just learning as much as I can myself and putting that towards the business,\u201d said Clarke.<\/p>\n

GymGoer is currently in wait-list mode, but is expected to go live in the coming days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former AFL player has raised $400,000 for a new startup making it easier for athletes and everyday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[26557,6647,9621,26558,102,11872,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-47378","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-app","9":"tag-fitness","10":"tag-gym","11":"tag-gymgoer","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-startup-funding","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}