Hyrox, which has emerged as the byword for indoor fitness competitions, is expected to be taken over by a global private equity fund. The idea of bundling weight training and running—once done alone at gyms—into a global, time-record competition has evolved into a massive industry generating huge revenue. As the "Ironman" brand grew into a commercial sport after meeting big capital in the past, fitness competitions that involve running together and doing strength exercises are also seen as having established themselves as a core consumer market that creates wealth.
On the 7th, Bloomberg said L Catterton, a private equity manager affiliated with luxury giant LVMH, is wrapping up talks to acquire a controlling equity stake in Hyrox. The target is the controlling shareholder equity in Hyrox held by Infront Sports & Media, a Swiss sports marketing corporations. Infront, a company backed by China's Dalian Wanda Group, invested in Hyrox in 2019 and became the largest shareholder in 2022 by securing a majority stake.
In this equity acquisition process, L Catterton is said to have valued Hyrox at about 600 million euros (about 940 billion won). That is roughly 2.6 times its projected sales for this year. Bloomberg added that while the sale has not been finalized, both sides are very close to a deal.
Hyrox is an indoor fitness race that began in 2017 in Hamburg, Germany. Christian Tötzke, a large-scale sports event expert, and Moritz Fürste, an Olympic field hockey gold medalist, co-founded it with the aim of creating a competition that gym-goers could easily enter. The basic format is simple and intuitive so people can train in daily life. After running 1 kilometer, competitors complete one set exercise, repeating the sequence eight times. The weight of equipment used and detailed standards vary depending on the participant's gender or competition institutional sector.
CrossFit, an earlier established fitness race, changes events and tasks randomly each time and frequently requires advanced weightlifting or gymnastics movements. Hyrox, by contrast, has all sequences set in advance, lowering the entry barrier. It is like an exam where the test scope is announced, so a neighborhood gym-goer can prepare for about three months and compete. Beyond solo events, there is a doubles format where two people split the exercises and a relay where four people divide segments, broadening the range of finishers. Above all, competitions are conducted with the same standards and order anywhere in the world. A participant who trained in Korea can go to a race in Hong Kong or the United States and objectively compare their own time, providing a clear sense of purpose.
L Catterton, which specializes in consumer investments, said Hyrox has built a unique and powerful business model based on standardized formats. Hyrox headquarters does not spend capital and manpower to open its own gyms in each country. Instead, it collects money from three sources: existing gyms, participants, and sponsors. Hyrox grants official training partner status to gyms or large group-training franchises like F45 in exchange for affiliation fees. As of the end of last year, affiliated gyms exceeded 10,000 worldwide.
Hyrox competitors pay tuition to gyms to train on official programs. If they enter a race, they pay a separate entry fee of around $110 (about 147,000 won) per person. On top of that, global sports brands like Puma add sponsorship in return for exclusive apparel and footwear supply. Puma currently has a title sponsorship for the Hyrox world championship through 2030. Hyrox told Reuters, "Without company-owned stores, we drew more than 750,000 people to over 80 events in 31 markets worldwide as of 2025," and said, "In 2026, 1.5 million people are expected to participate in more than 100 cities across 35 countries."
Hyrox is expanding rapidly in the Asian fitness market, spanning mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo, Japan. The Hong Kong race had fewer than 1,000 participants in its first year in 2022, but swelled more than 20-fold to 20,000 in May this year. The next Hyrox world championship, scheduled for June next year, will be held in Hong Kong for the first time outside Europe and North America. Korea also held its first domestic Hyrox race in 2024, and 15,000 people flocked to the Incheon race in May this year. Bloomberg said L Catterton is also considering bringing in co-investors, including from Asia. It is seen as a move to leverage powerful local investor distribution networks and infrastructure to seize emerging markets at once.