BurnAlong raises $4M, plans hiring with business ‘accelerating’

Pikesville-based BurnAlong raised $4 million in fresh funding as it is seeing businesses and institutions sign on for its video health and wellness platform faster in a time of remote work and closed fitness centers, co-CEO Daniel Freedman said.

The round was led by existing investors, which were not named, and included new investors DM Wellness and CR2 Ventures. It follows a $1.5 million round in 2019.

BurnAlong’s platform offers streaming fitness, health and wellness classes, and allows folks to work out together in groups. The company is working with employers, who can then provide access to employees. From the mid-Atlantic, a sampling of clients include McCormick, Brown Advisory, Johns Hopkins and the City of Baltimore.

It’s a roster built from several years of work building the platform and putting it in front of users. As early clients spread the word, it helped the company land new ones. With demand and a product that works, it was in a place for growth. Now, it has more than doubled business in the first quarter of 2020, according to leadership.

When he last spoke to Technical.ly in March, Freedman said the company was seeing an uptick in interest as the COVID-19 pandemic was shifting how companies thought about wellness for its employees as they looked to expand remote offerings. In a time of stress and isolation — for both employees and their families — the company offers yoga, wellness classes and workouts across 45 categories. And more recently, BurnAlong has added content specifically to help in those areas that are exacerbated by the pandemic.

“We feel this is why we started the company and to be able to deliver on our mission during this time is the most rewarding thing for all of us,” he said.

Freedman said companies have also been getting the platform up and running more quickly.

“Everything has just been accelerating because every single employer as well as individuals are understanding that you need to have a digital solution for health and wellness,” Freedman said. “We’ve seen corporations, institutions and brokers who have been looking at us for Q3, Q4 and 2021 are accelerating their plans with us.”

BurnAlong is planning to put the funding toward continuing to move forward on that inbound interest, as well as continue to add features to the platform. It’s also growing the team, and plans to hire 10 to 12 people in the immediate term across areas like engineering, product, sales, account management and partner support, Freedman said.

The round closed at a time bringing macroeconomic stress for many investors globally. In BurnAlong’s case, Freedman said the round was oversubscribed.

Along with companies in the region signing on, Freedman said folks from Johns Hopkins Tech Ventures and investors in the Baltimore area have been helpful to the company throughout. Even investors that focus on other industries have been reaching out to help, as they seek to help local companies move forward.

“We’re really appreciative of the support we’ve seen in Baltimore,” Freedman said.