Pale Fire Capital buys VirtualTraining – the global app ROUVY

PFCNews

We are buying the Czech company Virtual Training, the company behind the indoor cycling and running training app ROUVY.

Both companies have extensive experience in the online environment, deep market knowledge and have experienced teams. Mutual synergies while maintaining an agile business approach is a condition for achieving the set goals – to strengthen the team, to support further development of the ROUVY app, to fulfil the ambition of the world’s number one mobile app for virtual training for cyclists and runners and to cross the two-million mark of the community of active users in five years.

“From the beginning, we have been motivated by the idea of a real cycling experience right at home. We’ve come a long way and now we’re making that feeling possible with our unique Augmented Routes technology. We are convinced that we offer a believable experience and great fun, and we want to prove that to other advanced and casual cyclists, triathletes and runners around the world. That’s why we’ve partnered with the experienced investment group PFC and we believe that together we can build a strong global business that can connect the indoor and outdoor worlds and attract even more people of different experiences and ages to the sport,” says the CEO of VirtualTraining Ltd. Petr Samek.

“I was introduced to ROUVY as a user during the Covid lockdown. I only found out that it was a Czech project after driving hundreds of kilometres in the virtual environment of the Alps and Italy. Petr Samek and his colleagues are doing a great job, which can compete with the best on the world markets. The ambition to reach the very top of the world and an extremely fun and positive product brought us together and resulted in a close cooperation. The other partners at PFC are also fans of the sport, so we are truly delighted to be able to support the next phase of development,” says Dušan Šenkypl on behalf of Pale Fire Capital.

The investors and developers have very ambitious plans for the app – they are going to rewrite the top ranking of cycling apps, which is currently led by ZWIFT, the online training app from the USA. Last year, ROUVY users logged over 58 million kilometres, and this year, in the first half of the year, nearly 49 million. However, the target for this year is very ambitious – 150 million kilometres.

For the second year, the training app is a partner of the world’s largest triathlon series IRONMAN and the Tour de Suisse stage race (and the purely digital Digital Swiss 5 race series). Petr Samek also highlights the partnership with Spain’s La Vuelta. “We are in intensive negotiations with the third most famous cycling road stage race in the world for long-term cooperation and are preparing a unique digital La Vuelta concept. I promise that fans will be excited about the new possibilities and the professional riders will be much closer to their community of supporters.”

This will significantly strengthen the ROUVY team and open up a number of exciting positions – and not just in Vimperk and Prague. The company’s founders, brothers Jiří and Petr Samek, plan to open a workspace for their employees and associates in Brno as well.

With growing ambitions, ROUVY is looking for experienced and motivated developers, marketing and product specialists with a focus on B2C, as well as experts in UI/UX design, etc., wherever they are from.

“One of the important tasks is to make ROUVY more enjoyable and easier for newcomers. Besides simulation, we are also working on onboarding, gamification and a career system. All this means demands on the product team, developers and marketing. We are definitely not bored,” concludes Jiří Samek, CTO at ROUVY.

You can read a more detailed article in Hospodářské noviny or on Road Cycling.