India’s Biggest Unicorns: cult.fit is betting on acquisitions, disciplined expansion, and community-led programming for sustainable growth

WHEN THE MOTLEY bunch showed up at a converted warehouse in Bengaluru for a workout, they saw it was nothing like a typical Indian gym. There were no mirrors lining the walls. No treadmill rows. No bro-science routines scribbled on sheets of paper. Instead, there was structure. There was a coach leading from the front. There was synchrony in their burpees and box jumps.

That session in May 2016 was cult.fit’s very first class. The banner on the warehouse’s façade had attracted curious locals to the industrial-style leased commercial unit repurposed into a group workout studio. Who would have thought that it would grow into one of India’s earliest fitness-tech unicorns? cult.fit, later a part of Curefit Healthcare Pvt. Ltd, did not stop at opening gyms. It attempted to productise fitness in a country where gym-going was largely informal, unstructured, and often short-lived.