ClassPass

ClassPass sells a monthly membership that members spend as credits at boutique fitness studios, gyms, salons and wellness providers, and it sells corporate memberships to employers. It began as DabbleNYC in 2010, became Classtivity after the Techstars accelerator in 2012, and launched the ClassPass subscription in June 2013, rebranding the company in January 2014. Payal Kadakia founded it with Sanjiv Sanghavi, who left in 2014, and Mary Biggins joined as a co-founding partner. Fritz Lanman became chief executive in 2017 with Kadakia moving to executive chairman. The company is based in New York.

The financing history is well documented. A $2 million seed round in March 2014 included Fritz Lanman, SV Angel, Hank Vigil, Dave Tisch and Kal Vepuri, and a $12 million Series A led by Lanman and Vigil followed in September 2014. General Catalyst and Thrive Capital led a $40 million Series B in January 2015. GV (Google Ventures) led a further $30 million in November 2015. Temasek led a $70 million Series C in June 2017 with Acequia Capital, CRV, General Catalyst, GV, M13 and Thrive participating, bringing total funding to $154 million; Wikipedia reports that round at a $470 million valuation. Temasek led an $85 million round in July 2018 to fund expansion in Asia. In January 2020 Apax Digital and L Catterton led a $285 million round that valued the company above $1 billion.

At the time of the 2020 round ClassPass operated in 28 countries with more than 30,000 studio, gym and wellness partners and about 1,000 corporate customers, according to CNN Business. The pandemic shut most of that partner base for long stretches. In October 2021 Mindbody, the studio booking software company taken private by Vista Equity Partners in a $1.9 billion buyout in 2019, acquired ClassPass in an all-stock deal. Terms were not disclosed; Axios reported Mindbody would hold 60% to 70% of the combined business, and Sixth Street committed $500 million to the merged company. In 2025 the combined group adopted Playlist as its parent brand.

ClassPass is a case of a venture-backed consumer marketplace whose last private valuation preceded a demand shock. Seed and Series A investors entered at single-digit millions in 2014, and the late-stage growth investors priced the company at roughly $1 billion two months before the pandemic. Liquidity came not through an IPO but through a stock merger into a private equity owned software company, so returns for every class of investor depend on the eventual exit of the combined Mindbody and ClassPass business.