Boddy
Boddy is a company.
Financial History
Leadership Team
Key people at Boddy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who founded Boddy?
Boddy was founded by Jean-Etienne DURAND (CEO & Founder).
Boddy is a company.
Key people at Boddy.
Boddy was founded by Jean-Etienne DURAND (CEO & Founder).
Key people at Boddy.
Boddy was founded by Jean-Etienne DURAND (CEO & Founder).
BODDY is a Zurich-based travel-tech startup founded in 2019 that operates a digital marketplace enabling travelers to search, compare, book, pay for, and access wellness and fitness experiences worldwide, such as yoga, gyms, spas, and sports activities.[1][2][4] It serves health-conscious travelers by solving the problem of discovering and booking local wellness options on the go, partnering with over 2,000 operators in 25+ cities and distributing via major players like Viator, Expedia, GetYourGuide, Hilton, and Swiss International Air Lines.[2][4] The company raised a €2 million ($2.2 million) seed round in 2023 led by Dr. Li Wu of Virtusan, fueling North American expansion and product development, and has since formed key partnerships including an exclusive deal with DragonPass for global fitness access and a binding merger with TrainAway to create a unified network spanning 30+ countries.[1][2][4][5]
This positions BODDY at the nexus of booming post-pandemic wellness travel demand, with strong growth momentum through strategic alliances and integrations that enhance distribution and operator reach.[1][5]
BODDY was founded in 2019 in Zurich, Switzerland, by CEO Hannes Boller and COO Sandro Abegg, emerging amid rising demand for integrated travel and wellness solutions.[1][4][5] The idea stemmed from addressing fragmented access to fitness and wellbeing during travel, providing a seamless digital platform at a time when the travel industry faced digitization gaps.[2][5] Early traction included building a network of thousands of experiences across Europe and Asia, partnerships with hotels, airlines, and OTAs, and weathering COVID-19 challenges, which honed their resilience.[4][5] Pivotal moments include the 2023 seed funding led by health expert Dr. Li Wu, enabling North America entry, followed by the DragonPass partnership for B2B scale and the merger with TrainAway—announced recently—to merge BODDY's travel-focused booking with TrainAway's 1,500+ gym network, bringing TrainAway CEO Kenn Gudbergsen aboard as chief commercial officer.[1][2][5]
BODDY rides the wellness travel megatrend, fueled by post-COVID prioritization of health, with travelers seeking transformative, active experiences over passive vacations amid a $1 trillion+ global wellness economy.[1][5] Timing is ideal as digitization accelerates in under-served tours/activities segments, where OTAs like Expedia dominate but wellness niches lag—BODDY fills this via API integrations and partnerships.[2][4] Market forces like rising fitness app adoption, airport/lounge ecosystem expansions (e.g., DragonPass), and hospitality demands for ancillary revenue favor its model, while the TrainAway merger counters fragmentation by creating a unified global network.[4][5] It influences the ecosystem by empowering operators with new streams, enabling airlines/hotels to bundle wellness, and aligning with behavioral health shifts via Virtusan ties, potentially redefining travel as inherently health-focused.[1][5]
BODDY is primed for hypergrowth through its TrainAway merger, DragonPass exclusivity, and North American push, targeting millions via B2B channels while refining AI-driven discovery and global operator onboarding.[5] Key trends like personalized wellness tech, embedded travel perks (e.g., via cards/banks), and sustainable health tourism will propel it, with potential for further M&A or OTA deepenings. Its influence could evolve from niche aggregator to indispensable travel-wellness infrastructure, making "healthy travel" standard and scaling impact in a healthier global mobility landscape—echoing its seed vision of revolutionizing lives through accessible wellbeing.[1][2]