Volt Athletics, a personal training tech provider based out of Seattle, acquired ZAMA Health, a mental health-focused platform. Volt Athletics focuses on the physical health side of sports and uses AI to provide users with specific training, while ZAMA Health employs educational modules and peer-to-peer connections to give such athletes wellness services and information.
Brendan Sullivan, the DC-based founder of ZAMA Health and a former collegiate athlete, became Volt Athletics’ general manager of athlete wellbeing through this deal. He said there’s a hope to bring these two platforms together and deliver a holistic tool for athletes’ success.
“There’s a huge alignment of vision,” Sullivan told Technical.ly.
Sullivan did not disclose the financial terms of the acquisition, which closed in early April. He was the only full-time team member at ZAMA Health, but two contractors were full-time-equivalent and remain involved, he said.
Nearly 2 million people have used Volt Athletics’ platform, including athletes at the collegiate and professional level and military personnel, according to Sullivan.
ZAMA Health, which Sullivan found alongside his medical provider mother, is a B2B company that launched its platform in October after being founded in 2021. The Techstars and One Mind Accelerator alum It uses education modules, like teaching breathwork and meditation; it also incorporates local campus or gym resources, like how to access a tutoring center at the person’s college. The platform anonymously connects other athletes going through similar challenges or experiences, as well. For example, if someone has never done a certain exercise before, they can use the anonymous portal to ask how to do that exercise properly.
It already works with such clients as The University of Texas at Arlington, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association and FITNESS SF, a gym chain in California.
Through this work, Sullivan has seen a necessary trend of using technology to meet people where they are when working out. Becoming a “one-stop-shop” for both physical training and wellness is ideal, too: It fits the consumer’s needs, he said.
Over the next year, Sullivan said his main goal is integrating ZAMA Health’ and Volt Athletics’ platforms, and he’s figuring out what that product will look like. In the short term, ZAMA Health will retain its own name and brand. Clients shouldn’t expect to see any changes at the moment.
“If anything, it’s even better for them now, because now they have a lot more resources at their disposal,” Sullivan said. “There’s just a better level of support, I think. There’s just a better understanding of the holistic view of the industry. And so I think, in a lot of ways, this is just going to be more helpful for all of them.”
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