Estonian real estate investment firm Capital Mill backed Kazakh startup 1Fit with $100K

Igor Mölder's Estonian real estate investment firm Capital Mill provided Kazakh startup 1Fit with $100K. Among other investors of this round was UK-based venture fund TMT Investments, which invested $500K (early investor in Estonian mobility unicorn Bolt and sales management CRM company Pipedrive), and a syndicate of Kazakh entrepreneurs who work for global IT giants. They backed 1Fit with $400K. In total, the startup received $1M with a valuation of $41,5M. 

1Fit was founded in 2018 by Murat Alikhanov, Abzal Toremuratuly, Askar Akshabaev, Merey Baizhokin and Meir Adilzhanov. It is a single fitness subscription in a mobile app that provides access to gyms and fitness clubs in Kazakh cities of Almaty, Nur-Sultan, Shymkent, and Karaganda. The service also works in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. The user can buy a membership starting from 90 days through the application and, later, he can attend various sports such as yoga, CrossFit, dancing, boxing, swimming, and fencing. It is also possible to rent snowboards, skis, and bicycles, and have saunas and massages with the application. According to 1Fit, the company has more than 70K users in three countries, and the turnover from January to May 2023 amounted to about $7M. 

The startup tried to work in the UK market, but then the founders of 1Fit decided to leave the country due to the difference in target customers. Now it plans to expand into Turkey, Azerbaijan, and one of the Southeast Asian countries (Malaysia, Indonesia, or Thailand). 

Capital Mill was co-founded in Tallinn in 2008 by Igor Mölder. Other owners of the company are Marko Kull, Tanel Samuel, and Aleksandra Samuel. It invests in commercial buildings in the Baltic States and provides services for real estate management. In total, the company has invested over €400M in commercial and office buildings, shopping centers, as well as warehouse and production buildings.