Glofox , the Dublin tech firm that sells gym/fitness studio management software, has raised €2m in a VC investment round. The company, which was founded by former Connacht rugby player Conor O'Loughlin (pictured), is planning to use the funds to help it press further into the US market.

Glofox's software allows gym owners to manage their business more effectively, and covers member management, class scheduling, payments, reporting and e-commerce for the manager, customers and trainers.

The €2m fundraiser was secured from Tribal VC, a Dublin-based venture capital firm, as well as Partech Ventures and Notion Capital, a SaaS-focused VC fund.

Glofox was founded in 2014 when three directors Conor O’Loughlin (34), Finn Hegarty (34) and Anthony Kelly (35) invested €5,000 between them in seed capital. The company received two €25,000 payments from EI in 2014 followed by €125,000 from the agency in November 2015.

The latter payment followed the Glofox trading company, Zappy Ltd, raising €75,000 each from investors Gilad Somjen and Growing Capital. The two privates invested another €125,000 in December 2015, leveraging a further €125,000 from EI in May 2016, for a running total of €300,000 taxpayer funding for the venture.

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Startup losses in Zappy Ltd to end December 2015 amounted to €233,000.

Glofox provides a web and app dashboard for gyms and studios, priced at €80 to €170 per month, to manage membership, scheduling, payments and selling stuff online.

O’Loughlin said: “Since starting Glofox, there’s an idea we hear again and again from our customers: ‘I didn’t set up a fitness business because of my love for spreadsheets’. On the surface, this is what we solve: we give gym and studio owners a platform for managing their business more effectively.

“But in reality, we give them something more than that: time. Time for the owners to focus on the real reason they started the business — improving health and fitness. And time for their customers who want to be able to quickly book a class then move on with their day.

“This funding will help us give more time to more of these business owners, more globally and with more value than ever.”

With 40% of its business already in the USA, Glofox will use the new funding to expand its team there as well as enhance its offering to customers on this side of the Atlantic. The firm's headcount is expected to grow from 25 to 40.