Strava eyes IPO as Gen Z trades dating apps for running clubs

In Brief

Strava, the 16-year-old fittingness tracking app, is gearing up to spell public, the Financial Times reports.

CEO Michael Martin told the FT that the San Francisco institution plans to database “at immoderate point,” eyeing superior for much acquisitions. The company, backed by Sequoia Capital, TCV, and Jackson Square Ventures, was past valued astatine $2.2 billion successful May.

Strava has the upwind astatine its back, certainly. The app’s idiosyncratic basal has exploded to 50 cardinal monthly progressive users successful 2025, according to Sensor Tower – astir treble its closest competitor, with downloads up 80% year-over-year.

Strava’s maturation coincides with a taste displacement astir running, peculiarly arsenic radical successful their teens and 20s question much alcohol-free ways to socialize. Runners besides stress the intelligence wellness benefits of uncovering enactment networks (and, sometimes, romance). Applications for the 2026 London Marathon jumped 31% this twelvemonth to 1.1 cardinal people.

Strava’s concealed sauce? Turning workouts into societal currency with “kudos” and divided comparisons. Sensor Tower estimates consumers spent implicit $180 cardinal connected its subscription tier done September – a fig Strava says importantly underestimates existent revenue. The institution besides earns from sponsored challenges and marque partnerships.

Subscribe for the industry’s biggest tech news