How this Gurgaon-based linked health startup goals to make Synq.Fit India’s reply to ‘Peloton’

“We want to cater to people who would like to invest in their fitness,” Pratik Sud, co-founder of Synq.Fit, is obvious in regards to the target market who is likely to be concerned about an indoor linked health bike that prices Rs 1,20,000.
The thought to launch a Synq.Fit indoor bike got here from Sud’s personal struggles to comply with a fitness-regime throughout quarantine earlier final 12 months, when the Covid-19 pandemic had simply entered our lives. “I tried a few options like downloading a few apps, which allowed me to do some form of exercise, but that was entirely without a baseline machine or something which I could have a consistent output on,” Sud tells Indianexpress.com in an interview.
The demand for residence exercise tools has elevated in the course of the pandemic as many individuals are reluctant to return to health club and health golf equipment, and Sud’s firm needs to encash on the idea of a linked residence health club. “The thought behind the bike is that people are able to have a more structured approach to working out and in a more reliable, continuous, and easy to approach method of doing your daily workouts,” he mentioned.
The Synq.Fit is a high-end at-home health bike with connectivity choices. (Image credit score: Synq.Fit)
From the start, Sud knew the Synq.Fit can be greater than the stationary train machine, a high-tech internet-enabled indoor bike with a 21.5-inch display that streams reside or on-demand lessons proper into your house, full with motivating trainers. Synq.Fit is India’s first linked health bike, and at Rs 1,20,000 (accessible for Rs 85,000 as inaugural supply) excluding Rs 1,500 for month-to-month on-demand lessons, could seem costly, however Sud says the mixed package deal gives lots of worth to those that need participating and private health answer at residence.
The 37-year-old Sud, who beforehand based two well being tech ventures and in addition runs a co-working agency and incubator, says his previous expertise in well being tech has helped him lots in understanding the place the market of health is headed. Sud is conscious that health is a private factor, and when mixed with expertise and in-person health lessons and live-streamed ones, folks get extra .
Synq.Fit, as Sud identified, is totally different from the train bikes which can be generally present in gyms or at properties. It is a high-end train with a contemporary look. The bike has a zero-maintenance design with the shifting elements which can be utterly closed; it’s totally a magnetic bike, that means it doesn’t have frictional elements for lowering or growing the pace.
Pratik Sud is a co-founder of Synq.Fit, which he goals to make a linked health firm. (Image credit score: Synq.Fit)
“Our prime focus thing was to make zero maintenance and a zero noise machine so that people can even have it inside their bedroom and do the workout, while the partner is sleeping in the morning,” Sud explains the rationale behind specializing in each the weather whereas designing the bike that’s straightforward to make use of and making it compact. “We wanted to offer a gym-quality cardio workout in anyone’s home,” he mentioned, including that the prevailing at-home exercise choices are inconsistent as there isn’t any one-on-one coach strategy concerned.
But to make Synq.Fit a linked health bike, Sud and his staff determined so as to add a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-enabled 21.5-inch HD display. The contact display monitor is predicated on Android however runs a proprietary software program customised for exercises and health. The system works identical to Netflix, the place you’ll be able to select your profile and it shows all your stats and the final trip and never these of your different relations.
There have been premium indoor health bikes earlier than, Sud had a unique thought within the thoughts. He and his staff determined to beam reside or on-demand exercise lessons for patrons for which they might cost individually from customers.
“We have our own studio, we have our own trainers who are making the content every day,” he mentioned. “We have handpicked trainers from across India, and all of them are certified and experienced trainers who train primarily on the cycling format.” Sud additional added that the corporate at present broadcasts about six distinctive classes day by day that vary from biking, stretching, yoga, and practical coaching.
Having on-demand, reside exercise lessons, in case you need to subscribe to, does supply some key advantages. Sud says they’ve designed classes that can enchantment to the broadest viewers doable. The classes are brief in length, and every of the six instructors are properly skilled. More importantly, the subscription offers you the choice to e-book a reside session and in case you missed out, a buyer can rewatch the recorded session. Sud says a single subscription covers a household of 4.
When you purchase a Synq.Fit bike and pay Rs 1500 a month, you’ll be able to reap the benefits of the in-studio on-demand, reside exercise classes. (Image credit score: Synq.Fit)
A subscription mannequin places the Synq.Fit health indoor bike into a singular place, one thing no different firm is doing in India. Sud is conscious of the identical, however he insists that paying for on-demand, reside lessons will not be vital. “When I’m paying a subscription, it does not mean that the bike is completely useless without it. You can always watch a free YouTube video, but then again, if you want to do studio classes with a bit like a gym, there is a subscription element because it takes fairly intensive production effort from our end,” he explains. In the longer term, the corporate may supply a free subscription the place prospects have added to some coaching classes a day however nothing has been deliberate as of but.
Sud has a bigger imaginative and prescient across the subscription however he additionally provides that the content material must be sturdy to assist the enterprise mannequin. “Until the content is not premium or fresh, we are not going to make any strides in the market,” he mentioned.
Sud has sensible expectations from the Synq.Fit bike for the primary 12 months. The firm plans to promote 1,500 items of Synq.Fit bikes in India. Customers can log in to the official web site and buy the bike. However, to start with, the corporate is limiting the supply to Delhi-NCR with plans to launch the bike in different elements of the nation within the subsequent 4 to 5 months.
It’s early for the Synq.Fit bike, however Sud and his staff are already engaged on a bunch of options to enhance the expertise. For occasion, Sud revealed that they’re engaged on a brand new characteristic that may act as an interface between Google Fit and Apple Health, permitting the bike to sync all of your health actions with the 2 apps. Sud additionally indicated launching a linked treadmill in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later.
Sud, who co-founded Synq.Fit with different companions final 12 months, goals to remodel the startup right into a linked health model. Peloton comes closest to what Sud and his staff try to realize right here, a US-based “connected fitness” firm that has a cult following. Founded in 2012, Peloton made working from residence thrilling and motivated, and maybe why the corporate has tens of millions of paying customers. It gives costly, high-tech health bikes layered with a month-to-month subscription for the reside exercise lessons. US President Joe Biden is a giant fan of a Peloton bike and so is Hugh Jackman.
“Nobody is combining hardware and software as us,” Pratik says, who has a staff of 17 members together with two different co-founders. “You like the bike for the piece of hardware it is, but after a month of using it, you should be raving about our trainers and how you feel after a workout,” he mentioned.