Arketa Raises $15 Million To Power The Next Trip To Your Yoga Class

Forbes

06-06-2025

Think this is nice? It's a version of the weekly Under 30 newsletter and would be even better in your inbox.
courtesy of Arketa
Years spent behind check-in desks at yoga studios across California taught Rachel Lea Fishman one thing: The industry was in need of a warm up.
'Part of working behind the desk is seeing all the softwares that you either love, or love to hate,' she said. Fishman found herself falling into the latter thanks to the archaic and fragmented tools to check clients in, charge them for classes, answer their FAQs, and market to new students. To make the process easier for studio owners and instructors alike, she cofounded Arketa, a software company that helps fitness studios better manage operations in 2020. This March, Arketa closed a $15 million Series A, led by Inspired Capital, bringing their total funding to nearly $23 million.
But, like any fitness class, Arketa's journey had its fair share of tough positions. A month after she joined forces with her cofounder Josh Archer (both of whom made the 30 Under 30 list in 2024) to officially launch the software in February 2020, Covid hit. And in-person fitness studios—their primary user base—shut down.
Instead of pausing operations, however, they pivoted to meet the changing demands of the industry.
'Covid took the chessboard that was the fitness industry and totally flipped it on its head,' she said. 'Instructors used to think, 'I have to work for a big box gym in order to teach,' and studio owners used to think 'I can only open up 10 studios in order to scale,' and 'If I switch from my dinosaur software, the whole world is going to go upside down.''
But in hindsight, Covid became a necessary push to change the way fitness instructors and studios operated, and Arketa began building technologies to support the new wave. They launched tools for digital teaching libraries, virtual classes, and more. From the beginning it was built as fully-white labeled software to accommodate for the variety of ways Covid-era studios connected with clients. And to this day, Arketa continues to support fitness studios and other wellness spaces—from cold plunges to cryotherapy treatment centers—regardless of what types of services they provide, or where.
The fully-customizable features set them apart from competitors like MindBody (one of the biggest class booking platforms today), because studios can seamlessly integrate Arketa into their stack.
'You remember the makeup brand that was like, 'Maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's Mabelline?'' Fishman said. 'That's like Arketa. You don't know unless you know, because it is so white labeled.'
To continue innovating, Arketa is now focused on implementing AI to make the processes even smoother. That's what much of their new funding is going to support.
Fishman initially used AI to help the internal Arketa team be more productive across engineering and marketing. Now they're using AI for client-facing chatbots (that will answer FAQs like 'do you have showers' or 'what's the parking like' in 30 seconds or less), generating leads to their studios, and more.
If a small business is 'not picking up on AI and capturing all these new technologies, they're just falling behind,' Fishman said. Her goal is to prevent that from happening.
See you next week,
Alex & Zoya
Cody Pickens for Forbes
Not unlike his The White Lotus character Saxon Ratliff, Patrick Schwarzenegger loves his protein. Along with starring in the hit HBO show set in Thailand, the son of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver is the cofounder of protein bar brand Mosh, which he launched with his mom. The bars are bringing in $20 million in annual revenue, he told Forbes. See what else he's up to here.
-Payflow, a Madrid-based startup that allows employees to access their earned wages at any time during the month, announced Monday that it has raised nearly $11 million in a new equity funding round. Cofounded by Under 30 Europe alum Avinash Sukhwani, Payflow partners directly with employers that pay a fixed monthly fee to offer the service as a benefit. Prior to this round, the company had already secured some $16 million in equity funding and an additional $30 million in debt financing.
-Robinhood, the widely used stock trading app, acquired cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp in an all-cash deal worth $200 million this week. The acquisition, spearheaded by CEO and Under 30 Hall of Famer Vlad Tenev, will give Robinhood access to Bitstamp's established base of institutional clients across Europe, Asia and the U.K. It also brings more than 50 global crypto licenses under Robinhood's umbrella. Founded in Luxembourg in 2011, Bitstamp is the world's longest-running cryptocurrency exchange.
-Misfits Market, the online marketplace for organic and 'imperfect' produce founded by 2020 Under 30 alum Abhi Ramesh, announced last week that it acquired The Rounds, a startup specializing in the delivery of household essentials using reusable packaging. Misfits is known for rescuing fruits and vegetables that don't meet conventional grocery store standards, and now the merger will allow the startup to expand beyond groceries into categories like cleaning supplies and other home goods. While terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, The Rounds had previously raised some $66 million in venture funding.
-The Trump Administration has paused new visa appointments while it plans to develop a social media vetting policy for applicants—impacting those across academics and businesses, including newly minted international doctors. About a quarter of doctors in the U.S. come from foreign medical schools, and to practice in the U.S., they need to complete a residency here. With residencies starting July 1, many risk missing critical start dates, leaving hospitals understaffed and medical careers in jeopardy. (Forbes)
- … What if I told you she's a mastermind? Pop icon Taylor Swift is officially the owner of all her masters. Last week, Swift announced she bought back the rights to her first six albums, which were acquired by record executive Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings and then purchased by Shamrock Capital in 2020. It reportedly cost Swift some $360 million to gain the rights to her own music—but fear not, the Eras Tour made Swift a fortune and the catalog is likely already worth more than she paid. According to Forbes' real time net worth tracker, Swift is currently worth $1.6 billion. (Forbes)
-If you haven't heard of Labubu, congratulations … your screen time is probably in a healthy range. Labubu is a quirky, monster-like plush toy made by China's Pop Mart, and it's become the accessory of the summer thanks to a viral boost from social media. When K-pop star Lisa shared her Labubu keychain with her 105 million Instagram followers, the toy quickly gained global popularity. But in Asia, Labubu was already a cultural phenomenon. In 2024, Pop Mart pulled in $1.8 billion in revenue. (AP)