<div><em>With Adidas buying European startup company Runtastic for €220 million, it is time for Indian companies to go raise funds to build services. says <strong>Vishal Krishna</strong></em></div><div> </div><div>GoQii, Healthifyme and GetActive have gone on an overdrive pushing for customer acquisition because they need to show investors that their model will work. Their core technolgy is to collect running data and add on services to engage runners or users. These startups need to increase customer stickiness and increase awareness of the uses of this technology.</div><div> </div><div>Adidas purchased Austria-based Runtastic because the startup has acquired 70 million customers across 18 countries and 18 different languages. The technolgoy allows runners to customise their fitness plans and allow services to be sold to them. The model of engagement is unique, with content on fitness and nutrition personalised for each individual. The location aware hardware allows gamification of routes that the individual has accomplished.</div><div> </div><div>Have Indian startups achieved this level of customisation? Not yet! However the fitness industry is worth Rs 100,000 crore and the fitness technology is worth at least Rs 20000 crore by 2020. These numbers are based on investments in gyms across the country. Unfortunately only 15 percent are regulars to gyms and fitness technology, which include wearables and services, is less than 1 percent of the total market.</div><div> </div><div>However, the opportunity for the likes of Asics, Nike and Converse to buy these Indian startups, since their internal teams have failed to build fitness services, can be highly probable. Nike and Addidas have increased their franchise stores in India to more than 150. Perhaps it is time they engaged with some of these Indian startups. GoQii has raised close to $1 million, Healthifyme has raised $800,000 and GetActive has raised about $500,000.</div>
