Go to any run membership on the earth and there’s an excellent probability that everybody there has two issues: a Garmin smartwatch to trace their run and a Strava account to brag about it. Given the global running boom, it makes Strava’s lack of any fashionable, in-app coaching plans a curious and obtrusive omission. Or, at the least, it was till in the present day as Strava is buying Runna.
For many who don’t torture themselves with a 6AM day by day run, that is huge information — even when the businesses are retaining mum on the deal’s monetary particulars. Strava is essentially the most well-known health social media app available on the market. In the meantime, Runna burst onto the scene in 2021 and has rapidly climbed the app charts for folk in want of 5K, 10K, or marathon coaching plans. Since launch, it’s secured an additional $6.3 million in funding for its AI-powered run teaching, with customers spanning 180 nations. In 2024, Runna additionally tripled the dimensions of its workforce and is at the moment hiring roughly 50 roles to broaden the product and tech. Peruse operating subreddits or RunTok, and also you’ll invariably see somebody asking about or recommending the app.
The deal looks as if a win-win for Strava and Runna. Strava will get to shore up one among its greatest weaknesses — the shortage of operating coaching plans. For Runna, it will get entry to one of many largest on-line operating communities and Strava’s coffers.
“For some time, Strava had created static, document-based plans for runners however the actuality is these had been used very, very sometimes,” Strava CEO Michael Martin says. In line with the corporate’s analysis, the shortage of steering was a ache level for longtime customers and newcomers to the app. “We got here to understand that, because it associated to runners, that steering was coaching plans.”
There’ll be a brief wait earlier than Strava and Runna customers see adjustments from the acquisition.
“Successfully, nothing adjustments for the person out of the gate. Our plan with this acquisition is to speculate additional into rising the Runna app, spend money on the Runna workforce, after which proceed to function them as unbiased however in an built-in style,” Martin says, including that when the deal is absolutely wrapped, customers can anticipate to start out seeing adjustments within the coming weeks and months.
“The ambition is to do issues the place it is smart,” provides Runna cofounder and CEO Dom Maskell, who notes a extra seamless integration between the 2 apps would assist create a smoother person expertise. “It’s like, the person comes on and so they wish to see what run they’re doing in the present day. That sits in Runna, after which they wish to go discover a route for that run — that sits in Strava. Then, if they need dwell teaching, that’s on Runna after which Strava frankly has higher tech than us for recording in your cellphone. In the mean time, the person form of will get handed off numerous instances.”
“…I genuinely consider that is a tremendous factor for all customers. I’m joyful to inform everybody about it and sit on Reddit for the entire day to reply everybody’s questions.”
One factor that hasn’t been determined but is how subscriptions will work. Strava has a free tier however fees $79.99 a yr for premium options, whereas Runna prices $119.99 yearly. Whereas Runna at the moment makes use of Strava’s third-party API, till the main points are hammered out, customers will nonetheless must subscribe to each companies to get the total vary of options. When pressed additional on the problem, Martin says he envisions the Runna acquisition to be extra akin to when the corporate purchased Get better Athletics, a prehab and harm prevention app, than when it acquired FATMAP, a 3D-mapping platform. With a Strava subscription, Get better Athletics is basically a free perk however features as a separate app. FATMAP’s app, nevertheless, was retired in late 2024 and its tech/options had been included into Strava.
Subscriptions might be a thorny problem for each Strava and Runna customers. Over the previous few years, the r/Strava subreddit has been rife with accusations of enshittification, with many directing their ire towards the app paywalling options. Usually, customers are likely to react badly to any adjustments in subscriptions or smaller manufacturers getting wolfed up by greater ones. Living proof, in 2023, Strava hiked up subscription costs in a messy rollout that left users angry and confused. You solely want to take a look at the response to Garmin’s recent subscription launch to know the Strava-Runna information may not go over well with some users — a reality Martin and Maskell are nicely conscious of.
“We’ve obtained fairly an energetic Reddit neighborhood, and I do know there’s in all probability fairly a big overlap between them and the robust voices within the remark part,” says Maskell. “We attempt to be very clear and open with them, and I genuinely consider that is a tremendous factor for all customers. I’m joyful to inform everybody about it and sit on Reddit for the entire day to reply everybody’s questions.”
“I’d be mendacity to not say it’s a problem to consider investing in development throughout a interval akin to this, however it’s so clearly the correct factor to do,” Martin says, referring to the present unsure financial local weather. “That is very a lot a development and funding play. This isn’t an effectivity play.”