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Apex is on a mission to make smart bikes and virtual fitness communities more accessible and welcoming for regular folk.
The rising trend of at-home fitness has soared in recent years, even before the COVID-19 pandemic forced gym-lovers to find their own in-house fitness alternatives. And, as anyone who has stepped foot in a gym will tell you, exercise bikes are one of the key features in many people's indoor workout regime. Demand for personal exercise bikes, therefore, has never been higher, and Apex has responded by producing a high-performance indoor bike to suit the needs of fitness-loving consumers.
Their model is fairly simple - customers pay up front for the bike, and then subscribe to online services which allow them to access 24/7 fitness classes. This concept has been done before, with rival Peloton offering essentially the same service, so Apex's strategy has focussed on undercutting the market. Their product promises the same high-quality engineering at a substantially lower price-point. They are hoping, therefore, that they will be able to attract customers who might previously have been unwilling to pay the high costs associated with personal exercise bikes.
That being said, Apex bikes are still not cheap, and their future success will depend on whether their lower price goes far enough to capitalise on consumers which the likes of Peloton have missed. Likewise, as gyms reopen post-pandemic there is always the threat that most exercise bike enthusiasts will simply return to the gym as before.
However, Apex looks set to see considerable early success. Hundreds of bikes were reserved within minutes of the product's announcement in April 2020, suggesting that there is no shortage of demand for Apex's creation. If Apex can build on its high-profile partnerships - such as that with Boom Cycle, one of London's premium spin class brands - and provide on its promises of quality, the company has great potential to shake up the fitness industry as we know it.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Sep 2022
$1.6m
EARLY VC
Jan 2021
$3.9m
SEED
Simon Cook
(Co-founder)Having previously worked as a finance consultant and business development manager, Simon entered the fitness industry in 2018 when he co-founded Apex Rides
Charlie Lucas
(Co-founder)A graduate from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Charles was previously an investment manager at Killik & Co before co-founding Apex Rides with Simon, an old friend from school