Mindbody raises $50M for global push
Mindbody CEO Rick Stollmeyer. (Business Times file photo)
San Luis Obispo-based Mindbody has raised $50 million in new capital, its largest amount to date, that will be used to fund global expansion and mobile product development. The raise brings its total venture capital raised thus far to more than $110 million and likely marks the largest-ever raise in San Luis Obispo County.
The software firm said Feb. 20 that it raised the funds from a syndicate of current and new investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, Catalyst Investors, W Capital Partners and Montreux Equity Partners.
Mindbody makes online software for the owners of health, beauty and wellness businesses such as yoga studios, fitness centers and salons. After compiling what it says is the largest database of those businesses in the country, Mindbody has put forth ambitious plans to connect consumers, businesses and insurers to those companies as national attention focuses on preventive health care. More than 500,000 practitioners at 33,000 businesses around the world use its platform.
“Health care has never been as exciting as it is today,” Michael Matly, managing director of Montreux Equity Partners, said in a statement. “The health and wellness practitioners that Mindbody serves are playing an increasingly important role in health care. Mindbody is providing these small-business owners with cutting-edge technology that helps them stay relevant in a rapidly advancing online world.”
Mindbody launched two new products last year: a consumer booking app called Mindbody Connect and a service called Mindbody Exchange that offers employers a customizable platform to connect employees with health and wellness providers.
Mindbody is one of the fast-growing firms in the Tri-Counties, with revenue between 2010 and 2013 increasing 162 percent to $32.5 million. In October, the company broke ground on a $20 million campus headquarters on Tank Farm Road.
Mindbody is also the third-largest private-sector employer in San Luis Obispo County, with about 540 employees as of August 2013. CEO Rick Stollmeyer has said he would like to eventually have upwards of 1,000 employees on the Central Coast.
“Since our first funding round with Mindbody in 2009, the company has exceeded expectations in market penetration and growth year after year,” Tyler Newton, a partner at Catalyst Investors, said in a statement. “ Mindbody’s success comes from its dedication to a continuously evolving product as well as a genuine commitment to the success of the many businesses that use its software.” Catalyst Investors is Mindbody’s largest institutional shareholder.
