Go to any run membership on this planet and there’s likelihood that everybody there has two issues: a Garmin smartwatch to trace their run and a Strava account to brag about it. Given the worldwide operating growth, it makes Strava’s lack of any trendy, in-app coaching plans a curious and obtrusive omission. Or, no less than, it was till at the moment as Strava is buying Runna.
For those that don’t torture themselves with a 6AM every day run, that is massive information — even when the businesses are conserving mum on the deal’s monetary particulars. Strava is probably the most well-known health social media app in the marketplace. Meanwhile, Runna burst onto the scene in 2021 and has rapidly climbed the app charts for people in want of 5K, 10K, or marathon coaching plans. Since launch, it’s secured a further $6.3 million in funding for its AI-powered run teaching, with customers spanning 180 international locations. In 2024, Runna additionally tripled the scale of its crew and is presently hiring roughly 50 roles to increase 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 in every of 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 have been used very, very sometimes,” Strava CEO Michael Martin says. According to the corporate’s analysis, the shortage of steering was a ache level for longtime customers and newcomers to the app. “We got here to appreciate that, because it associated to runners, that steering was coaching plans.”
There’ll be a brief wait earlier than Strava and Runna customers see modifications from the acquisition.
“Effectively, nothing modifications for the consumer out of the gate. Our plan with this acquisition is to speculate additional into rising the Runna app, put money into the Runna crew, after which proceed to function them as unbiased however in an built-in style,” Martin says, including that when the deal is totally wrapped, customers can count on to begin seeing modifications within the coming weeks and months.
“The ambition is to do issues the place it is sensible,” provides Runna cofounder and CEO Dom Maskell, who notes a extra seamless integration between the 2 apps would assist create a smoother consumer expertise. “It’s like, the consumer comes on they usually wish to see what run they’re doing at the moment. That sits in Runna, after which they wish to go discover a route for that run — that sits in Strava. Then, if they need reside teaching, that’s on Runna after which Strava frankly has higher tech than us for recording in your cellphone. At the second, the consumer type of will get handed off various occasions.”
“…I genuinely imagine that is a tremendous factor for all customers. I’m glad 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 12 months for premium options, whereas Runna prices $119.99 yearly. While Runna presently makes use of Strava’s third-party API, till the small print are hammered out, customers will nonetheless have to subscribe to each providers 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 Recover Athletics, a prehab and harm prevention app, than when it acquired FATMAP, a 3D-mapping platform. With a Strava subscription, Recover Athletics is actually a free perk however features as a separate app. FATMAP’s app, nevertheless, was retired in late 2024 and its tech/options have been included into Strava.
Subscriptions can be a thorny difficulty 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. Generally, customers are likely to react badly to any modifications in subscriptions or smaller manufacturers getting wolfed up by greater ones. Case in level, in 2023, Strava hiked up subscription costs in a messy rollout that left customers offended and confused. You solely want to have a look at the response to Garmin’s current subscription launch to know the Strava-Runna information could not go over properly with some customers — a truth Martin and Maskell are properly conscious of.
“We’ve obtained fairly an energetic Reddit group, 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 imagine that is a tremendous factor for all customers. I’m glad 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 corresponding to this, however it’s so clearly the precise factor to do,” Martin says, referring to the present unsure financial local weather. “This may be very a lot a development and funding play. This isn’t an effectivity play.”
