Affinity Partners is leading the new investment, with participation from a consortium of existing investors, including Vista Equity Partners, Temasek and L Catterton.<\/p>\n
Playlist will maintain business as usual across its brands, with EGYM<\/a> operating as a subsidiary within the portfolio. The two companies generated more than $800 million in net revenue last year, the companies say.<\/p>\n \u201cThis merger represents a pivotal moment for both our companies as we continue to build the infrastructure behind the world\u2019s most meaningful in-person wellness experiences,\u201d Playlist CEO Fritz Lanman said. \u201cWe\u2019re inspired by what EGYM is doing to accelerate that vision with technology and corporate wellness solutions that power well-being at scale. By combining our geographies and complementary product portfolios, we\u2019re uniting multiple layers of wellness \u2014 software, connected hardware, consumer booking and workplace well-being \u2014 into one global platform.\u201d<\/p>\n The merger also opens the door for the Munich, Germany-based EGYM to scale across Playlist\u2019s core markets, including North America and Asia, while giving Playlist a stronger foothold in Europe and the broader EMEA region.<\/p>\n Lanman and EGYM co-founder and CEO Philipp Roesch-Schlanderer will both serve as co-founders of the new Playlist organization. Roesch-Schlanderer will also join Monti Saroya, the co-head of Vista Equity Partners\u2019 Flagship Fund, as co-chairman of Playlist.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBringing EGYM together with the newly created Playlist under one roof represents a profound\u00a0<\/strong>opportunity to impact lives through preventative health,\u201d Roesch-Schlanderer said. \u201cTogether, we can reduce chronic disease, lower healthcare costs\u00a0and\u00a0make people healthier and happier by shifting the world from repair to prevention.\u201d<\/p>\n EGYM\u2019s offerings extend beyond its AI-powered individualized fitness programs, which gym operator EoS Fitness has tapped for its clubs<\/a>. Through Wellpass, EGYM operates a corporate wellness marketplace that connects employees to gyms, digital health tools and nutrition resources<\/a>.<\/p>\n As for what the future holds (and despite their heavy focus on AI), both Playlist and EGYM say they see new opportunities to deepen\u00a0in-person\u00a0wellness experiences.<\/p>\n Lanman, a former Microsoft executive who now invests in roughly 150 tech startups, has been vocal about his push for the fitness and wellness industry to fully embrace the AI era. But he\u2019s also been quick to counter fears that the technology will make humans obsolete.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s important for this industry to hear, from a tech person, \u2026 that we\u2019re not going to be replaced by AI,\u201d Lanman said at ATN\u2019s Innovation Summit last year.<\/a> \u201cWhat it is going to do is empower and democratize the ability to do really deep and incredible analytics, really great personalized marketing and things like that to help businesses \u2026 grow and be more effective. So I see us heading toward an age of human augmentation, not substitution.\u201d <\/p>\n The deal is the latest\u00a0major\u00a0consolidation move in fitness,\u00a0following\u00a02024\u2019s\u00a0merger between Orangetheory Fitness and Self Esteem Brands<\/a>, the parent company of Anytime Fitness. It also comes amid a funding boom, with\u00a0fitness and wellness startups\u00a0pulling in\u00a0$2 billion last year.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As part of a seismic deal, the new business has already secured $785 million in new funding earmarked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4322],"tags":[210288,1630,105,5253,25380,9467,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-698106","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-egym","9":"tag-fitness","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-ma","12":"tag-merger","13":"tag-playlist","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115900294494282860","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Fritz-Lanman-Headshot-1120x1307.webp.webp\")
Playlist CEO Fritz Lanman (credit: Playlist)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Philipp-Roesch-Schlanderer-Headshot-1120x840.webp.webp\")
Philipp Roesch-Schlanderer (credit: Playlist)<\/p>\n