The social fitness app Strava has made two acquisitions over the last month and change: on Thursday, Strava’s acquired cycling app The Breakaway, following its acquisition of Runna last month.
Incubated in Y Combinator’s Summer 2021 class, The Breakaway uses AI to create personalized training plans for cyclists working toward specific goals. Runna, a UK-based and JamJar-backed app, functions similarly, but is built for runners, rather than cyclists.
Needless to say, Strava is signaling a very strong interest in selling training plan tools to its users.
As one of the highest-grossing and most popular fitness apps, Strava allows users to track their workouts and plan their outdoor running routes, but it has differentiated itself by adding a social component, allowing users to see where, when, and how their friends exercise (it’s as good a time as any to mention that Strava is public by default, so double-check your settings to make sure you’re not accidentally doxxing yourself).
Among power users, Strava’s public API has become essential for athletes who want to customize the way that they interact with their Strava data — according to Strava CEO Michael Martin, there are hundreds of different training apps integrated with Strava.
While apps like Runna and The Breakaway stood out to Strava for their quality, some users might still prefer another third-party app to plan their exercise routines… and typically, athletes do not like it when you mess with their routines. But the company has reassured users that it does not have any plans to stop offering an open API.
Strava has not yet clarified exactly how or if features from Runna and The Breakaway will be integrated into the Strava app. Martin said that Runna will at least remain a standalone app, so it is likely that The Breakaway will follow a similar plan.
“There are so many opportunities to enhance the user journey,” Martin said after the Runna acquisition. “Think about how runners plan routes in Strava, train with Runna, and then share back to Strava again – we want to reduce friction in that loop.”
It’s also yet to be determined if the pricing of these more premium products will change. Currently, a yearly Strava subscription costs about $80 per year, while yearly Runna and The Breakaway subscriptions cost about $120 and $70, respectively. But last month, Martin said that there are no plans to change pricing or to remove access to the free versions of these products.
