News on Medial

Cult.fit elevates Naresh Krishnaswamy as CEO, Mukesh Bansal becomes chairman

Entrackr · 7m

Fitness tech company Cult.fit has elevated its co-founder Naresh Krishnaswamy as the chief executive officer. He will succeed co-founder and long-time CEO Mukesh Bansal, who now takes over the role of the company’s executive chairman. Krishnaswamy already took over the position of the CEO in October last year, according to his Linkedin profile. The company, however, did not announce it formally then. A Cult.fit spokesperson confirmed the development. Before moving to the top position, Krishnaswamy was the head of finance of Cult.fit for more than three years and also handled growth and business division of the firm for more than two-and-half years. Before Cult.fit, he was associated with e-commerce firm Myntra for nearly six years. Following Tata Digital’s first investment of $75 million in Cult.fit in June 2021, Bansal joined the former as president. Though, he continued to hold the top role at the Cult.fit. Cult.fit recently raised around $10.2 million in an extended Series F round led by existing backer Valecha Investments. As per startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, Bansal holds a 10.5% stake in the company. Entrackr exclusively reported the fundraise in February. In January, Cult.fit announced laying off around 150 employees. As per the company, the move was a part of a regular annual operating planning process. During Covid-19 pandemic, it had fired around 800 employees and permanently closed many of its fitness centres across the country. Cult.fit turned unicorn in November 2021 when Deepinder Goyal-led Zomato acquired a 6.4% stake in the company in a $100 million deal. In FY23, Cult.fit’s revenue from operations surged 3.2X to Rs 694 crore from Rs 216 crore in the previous fiscal year. While it managed to reduce losses by 20% to Rs 551 crore (excluding the exceptional items or non-cash expenses) in FY23 from Rs 688 crore in FY22. The company is yet to disclose its FY24 numbers.