Glofox to raise €27m in funding as it announces 150 Irish jobs

Irish gym management software company Glofox is to create 150 new jobs this year to bring total staff numbers to 350 employees.

The new jobs follow a period of strong growth for the company, which doubled headcount in 2021 to 200 people.

Glofox, which is led by former Connacht scrum-half Conor O’Loughlin, is also in discussions to raise an additional $30 million (€27m) in investment from backers to bring funding to date to more than $50 million, the company confirmed.

Founded by Mr O'Loughlin, Finn Hegarty and Anthony Kelly in 2014, Glofox provides easy-to-use business management software for fitness studios and gyms across the world. Its clients range from solo operators to large fitness franchise such as the Mark Wahlberg-backed F45, which was valued at $1.4 billion after going public last year.

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Glofox successfully pivoted during the coronavirus pandemic when most of its members had to shutter operations due to lockdown restrictions. It rolled out a new platform early during the Covid crisis to help gyms live stream classes and offer premium on-demand content to customers, in a move that helped many of them stay in business.

The success of the platform, allied with a resurgence in business for fitness studios and gyms as members’ flock back following the lifting of restrictions, has buoyed the company.

“We’ve never declined in revenue growth on an annual basis even through Covid. I think the lowest we hit was growth of 20 per cent,” Mr O’Loughlin, Glofox’s chief executive, told The Irish Times.

“We’re seeing accelerated growth over the last six months, and are looking at some big contracts with franchise sites so I’m extremely optimistic about the opportunities for Glofox,” he added.

Customers

Glofox currently operates in 80 countries, supporting 17 languages and 40 currencies. The increase in staff numbers comes as the company unveiled plans to invest more to support payments in the Middle East as well as explore how to better serve customers in Latin America.

“We’re operating on a global stage but we are keeping a narrow focus and concentrating purely on the fitness sector, which we know inside and out,” said Mr O’Loughlin.

Approximately 40 per cent of the new roles will be in research and development, with the rest consisting of specialists to support customer success and growth.

While the company is headquartered in Dublin, the new roles are all fully remote, Glofox said.