Jamie Ward and Neil Harmsworth: PayasUgym.com

Jamie Ward and Neil Harmsworth, 35 and 34
Company: PayasUgym.com
Web: www.payasugym.com

Listed three times in our Startups 100 index and covered at inception in a Just Started profile, the appeal of Jamie Ward and Neil Harmsworth’s marketplace for gyms offering more flexible payment options was apparent from the start. Customers can compare prices on discounted daily passes, pass bundles and commitment-free monthly memberships for gyms across the UK, allowing them to define for themselves the best way to fit health and fitness into their busy lives. It’s a deceptively simple proposition that works for both gyms and consumers.

Now with more than 2,000 gyms signed up – over 10 times as many locations as the biggest brand-name gym in the UK – and more than 150,000 registered users, the founders have grown the start-up into a major player in the fitness industry. Investors have also started to catch on to the platform’s huge potential, and in May this year the duo closed a £1.6m round of funding led by Albion and MMC Ventures, taking PayasUgym’s total backing to £3.5m and allowing Ward and Harmsworth to launch a new fitness class comparison and bookings tool. With revenues expected to hit the £2m mark in 2014 – up from £1.2m last year – the entrepreneurial pair have deservedly progressed from members of our ‘five to watch’ to fully-fledged Young Guns.