Peloton—the at-home, on-demand fitness companybest known for its priceystationary bikes and ڴDZǷɾԲ—Wednesday that it filed confidentiallyfor an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission, a crucial step towardbecoming a publicly traded company. The number of shares it expects to sell, theirprice range, and the date of the IPO. (The company did not immediately respond to ϳԹ’srequests for comment.)
CEO John Foleyhas been since 2018. A confidentialfiling for“emerging growth”companies with under$1 billionin revenue, asit to withhold sensitive private informationuntil their actual IPOdate while the SEC reviews their registration statement. (Tech companies Lyft, Pinterest, and Uber, and the work-share company WeWork, all also filed confidentially in 2019.) Peloton was last at $4.15 billion, but Bloomberg reports that that couldskyrockettoas the at-home fitness trend continues to boom.
The company has seen explosive growth since it was founded in 2012. As Luke Darby wrote in 2018for ϳԹ, it is lookingto “bring the intensity and devoted following of cycling classes like SoulCycle and Flywheel into the home.” New riders citefeeling “instant camaraderie” with both the instructors and fellow cyclists, a connectionthatkeepsthem hooked.Peloton’s $2,245 bikes, equipped with a 22-inch screen to livestream or play over 10,000 on-demand workouts,have garnered some criticism for their hefty price tags.A subscription costs an additional $39a month for unlimited classes. But the company boasts reviews that are , barring one recent music-, after whichsome users claimed the app’s music quality declined.
Peloton is a giant in the digital-fitness space, but ithas seen a rise in competition as more businesses enter a market projected to grow to $27.4 billionby 2022. Companies like Flywheel and NordicTrack also offer at-home stationary bikes and streaming classes (and their bikes are cheaper, starting at $1,999). Fitness apps like Aaptivand Zwiftare also vying for a similaruser base, andStravais setting its sights on serving . Even big-boxgym chains like Gold’s are introducing .
Still, Peloton is the first major player in the digital-fitness spaceto file for an IPO, while others’ attempts have stalled out. AaptivCEO Ethan Agarwal recently backed off his suggestion that Aaptivcould go public in 2020, andPeloton’s studio-basedcompetitor, SoulCycle,withdrew from its IPO registrationin 2018,.”
With this public offering, Peloton is betting on the longevity of itscommunity-based, live-streaming workouts. And for outdoor-ridingevangelists, this couldbegood news: more people staying at home means less crowding on the good old-fashioned singletrack.