Walla, a studio management software company, received an $8 million Series A financing round led by venture capital firm Industry Ventures, on top of a previous $5 million seed round, the company announced on July 14.
TenOneTen Ventures, Keshif Ventures, Social Leverage and Crescent Ridge Partners also participated in the round.
Since launching in 2020, Walla has signed studios nationwide looking to improve daily operations, reduce client friction, and shore up their businesses, including fitness studios such as The River, Salt Fitness, Seattle Yoga Arts, and 502 Power Yoga.
“We’ve had our eyes on the impact of the pandemic on various industries, and the fitness industry has had to make some of the biggest pivots and concessions, making it ripe for technology disruption,” said Jonathan Roosevelt, managing director, Industry Ventures. “We’re fully aligned with Walla’s vision to make boutique fitness studios more agile and future-proof through technology.”
Walla uses behavioral psychology to nurture loyalty, community and retention.
The company’s platform streamlines communication and offers a simplified, built-in video-on-demand system and direct Zoom integration. It offers action-oriented dashboards featuring contextual data, and it offers operational tasks such as staff scheduling, sales reporting and monthly recurring revenue insights, and payment processing
Point-of-sale can occur on platforms such as Apple Pay and Google Pay
“At Walla, we believe in movement as a movement, and we’re committed to revolutionizing the industry’s software so our clients can get–and keep–more people moving,” Walla President and Co-founder Laura Munkholm said in the announcement. “The COVID-19 pandemic brought upon a new era for fitness businesses, and we want to provide all studios with the ability to adapt, grow and thrive, leaving the tech fatigue of the past two years behind.”
With this investment, Walla will continue to expand its software offering, including an email and text automation platform and an appointments solution for private sessions.