Online Wellness Platform Grokker Raises $22.5M

SAN FRANCISCO, United States — Grokker, a digital platform for on-demand fitness, yoga and cooking content has closed a Series B round in financing, bringing the wellness startup to $22.5M in total funding.

The round, which drew investment from First Round Capital, a seed-stage venture firm with Blue Apron and Uber as clients, and Khosla Ventures whose portfolio includes Aloha and Jawbone, will allow the startup to connect with even more consumers. Media platform Comcast, a further investor, has also entered into a programming partnership with Grokker. Comcast customers can now access Grokker’s network of renowned teachers for $6.99 a month.

“From the very beginning, we built Grokker with a mission to offer wellness to everyone, everywhere,” Grokker CEO and founder Lorna Borenstein explained.

“What better way to share the gift of wellness than to make it easily and very affordably available on Comcast? This partnership, in addition to our recent round of funding, and enterprise side of the business, is creating a new era for Grokker and helping us to connect with even more individuals in search of a health program that fits their lifestyle.”

Since launching its subscription service in 2015, Grokker has become a popular resource for consumers of wellness. According to TechCrunch, the site’s users are highly engaged, with a network of over 135­­ experts in yoga, fitness, meditation and healthy cooking. On average, members watch 30 minutes of video every week across multiple categories rather than just sticking to one.

In addition to partnering with major cable providers, Grokker’s enterprise business has also seen rapid growth. A wide range of companies including Pinterest and Synaptics leverage the brand’s all-in-one wellness network, as part of their employee wellness benefit packages.

To help support the platform’s rapid growth, last month Grokker announced a new Head of Enterprise Sales, Brian Berchtold, and a Vice President of SVOD, Kristen McNeill, who will work with Borenstein to ensure the company has a smooth transition into the next stage of its evolution.

“Grokker already moved the needle in consumer tech since launching a few years ago, but now with this Comcast partnership Grokker is truly a multi-channel network that enables wellbeing on-demand,” explained Jennifer Fonstad, Co-Founder of Aspect Ventures, another of Grokker’s investors.

Fonstad argues that as an all-in-one wellness app, instead of a niche yoga or cooking-only network, Grokker is a unique venture, and one Aspect Ventures can support through the entire arc of its growth.

An investor in companies that leverage data analytics and embrace interconnectivity to create new digital approaches to marketplaces, Aspect Ventures hopes to bring a fresh perspective to Grokker as the startup continues to bridge the gap between producers of digital wellness content and the consumers who are willing to pay for it.