BENGALURU: Fitness center chain Cult.fit said it has picked up a majority stake in F2 Fun & Fitness, thereby becoming the master franchise partner of the Gold's Gym in India. Cult.fit is part of Cure.fit Healthcare, which recently announced an investment from Zomato taking the company's valuation to $1.5 billion.

In a press release, Cult.fit said it will invest in increasing revenue from existing Gold's Gym centers and facilitating the centre expansion via franchisees in the coming years. The statement said that Gold's Gym is the second largest fitness chain in India and operates more than 140 centers in more than 90 cities.

Among the most acquired startups, Cure.fit had also acquired the Indian business of Fitness First in May 2018.

Cult.fit will empower all Gold's Gym centers through technology and app for customers. The Bangalore-based startup will look to expand the US gym brand across geographies including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal and Bhutan.

Founded in 2016 by Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori, Cult.fit provides fitness-related services through a mix of online and offline channels. These include offline group workouts at Cult.fit centers and other gym or team-based workouts at partner gyms and fitness centers across the country, as well as online training.

While Bansal has taken on an additional role of steering Tata Digital, Nagori now runs a separate cloud-kitchen platform Curefoods, which recently raised $62 million in capital.

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