Austin, TX-based MapMyFITNESS announced that it’s arranging a new $3 million add-on round of debt financing via Square 1 Bank to add to its $9 million Series B round, something company CEO Richard Jalichandra said in an interview the company sought out to help it keep up with its significant recent growth. The site also announced today that it has hit the 10 million user milestone, with four million of those being added to the company’s network of fitness tracking mobile and web apps in the last six months alone.
Jalichandra says that it’s a reflection on the company’s success, and the trajectory of its revenue growth that it chose to go with bank-based financing instead of VC funding for this add-on round. MapMyFITNESS isn’t revealing specifics about its revenue picture, but it is projecting big growth in revenue this year, after doubling each year during the past four.
“This type of financing facility this is very indicative of our financial strength, in that it isn’t venture debt, it’s straight term commercial debt,” he said. “Basically, it means we’re in very good shape. We’re looking for our revenue to nearly triple this year.”
As to what’s fueling the growth of the MapMyFITNESS apps, which include MapMyRUN, MapMyRIDE, MapMyWALK and more, Jalichandra attributes it to a number of factors.
“In terms of fitness-tracking apps, we’re the highest-rated app, so there’s definitely a quality metric in there,” he said. “There’s also a social component, as probably about just under a third or close to a quarter of new registrations can be attributed to some sort of social sharing information.”
Fitness apps have also been increasing in popularity recently, according to information from app metrics tracking agencies like Chomp (since acquired by Apple). A report from Research2Guidance anticipates the health apps industry to quadruple in size by 2016, and anticipates that they’ll bring in roughly $1.3 billion in revenue in 2012 alone. Increased interest in this segment should also help MapMyFITNESS add on even more users in the next few years.
The only threat for the company could be that proliferation of apps in this category means increased competition, but MapMyFITNESS has early mover advantage and brand recognition on its side. It should continue to grow, even while sport and fitness giants like Nike increase their mobile app offerings with software focused on new verticals like basketball and golf.