Malaysian fitness startup KFit acquires Groupon Indonesia

KFit co-founder Joel Neoh

Malaysian fitness startup KFit has acquired Groupon Indonesia.

It issued the following statement today:

KFit Holdings Pte Ltd (KFit) has today signed a deal to acquire Groupon Indonesia at an undisclosed fee. The acquisition will see KFit enter the Indonesian market with Groupon Indonesia as a wholly-owned subsidiary of KFit, while Groupon Inc will become a strategic shareholder of KFit.

KFit gained popularity by offering unlimited access to gyms and fitness studios for a fixed monthly fee.

In February, KFit added more categories like massages and beauty salons to its offering, an indication that the startup needed to add more revenue streams to its core product.

A month later, KFit also tweaked its model, limiting membership to 10 activities per month for the same rate.

With the acquisition of Groupon Indonesia, KFit is not just entering Southeast Asia’s largest economy, but entering the familiar ecommerce territory.

Back to where it started

While this move sounds off-the-beaten-path for a fitness startup, it makes more sense if you look into the company’s history. KFit co-founder and CEO Joel Neoh founded Groupon Malaysia back in 2011 and then went on to head Groupon Asia-Pacific.

Joel celebrated the acquisition with a Facebook post.

As such, he’s likely to be familiar with Groupon Indonesia’s operations, which itself is the result of Groupon’s acquisition of local deals site Disdus.

It’s unclear what Joel plans to do with his latest buy. Groupon has transformed itself into a marketplace after its original daily deals model lost steam. Does he see Groupon as a distribution channel to market KFit’s offerings?