The ABC TV Show, Shark Tank made the biggest tech startup investment in its history, in a D.C-based technology fitness startup company, Nexercise.
The company’s co-founders Ben Young (CEO) and Gregory Coleman (COO) walked out of the Shark Tank with a 1.5 million funding for a 10% stake ceded to ‘Shark’ Mark Cuban. The duo pitched Nexercise’s latest product the Sworkit; an indie app touted to give users customizable and randomized workout sessions.
Young and Coleman pitched Sworkit app in front of the Sharks during last episode that aired Friday, Feb 19. Online publisher Black Enterprise had a sit down with the duo, and they described the Shark Tank experience as being “awesome”.
“When you first get into the process you don’t get your hopes up high. Then we made it to the next round,” said Coleman.
“We knew we were going in with an aggressive pitch but believed that we had the business to back it up. We are looking forward to with Cuban and learning from him while together helping Sworkit because the leading platform people turn to fitness.”
His counterpart Young also reckons that their partnership with Cuban is exactly what Sworkit need to scale up operation.
“Our mission is to become the leading global standard for all instructional exercise. The exposure from Shark Tank will allow us to reach even more users.”
On its own, Sworkit was already commanding much attention. Before appearing on Shark Tank, the app had already more than 10 million downloads and ranked at the top of health and fitness apps.
Coleman and Young achieved a big feat by all measures. First they broke Shark Tank’s record in terms of the largest investment in a tech startup company, and secondly, they achieved this feet as Black-innovators operating outside the Silicon Valley.
About Sworkit
The app was first released back in 2014. Sworkit delivers to users on-demand, video exercise that users can do anytime and anywhere. On its first year of release, Sworkit got the DC TechDay Techie Award for Best in Health Tech in 2014.
Again recently, the app got recognition by the University of Florida fitness research study. The study gave a high score to the Sworkit app compared to competing health and fitness apps currently available on the market.