Fitness start-up backed by PM's personal trainer raising up to £14.4m

A fitness start-up backed by the Prime Minister’s personal trainer is raising up to $20million (£14.4million) to reboot Britons’ fitness after the pandemic.

Harry Jameson, who was hired to help Boris Johnson lose weight after he was hospitalised with Covid last spring, is an ambassador for NURVV, a British ‘wearable tech’ company founded in 2019 by entrepreneur Jason Roberts.

Best foot forward: NURVV is  a British ‘wearable tech’ company founded in 2019 by entrepreneur Jason Roberts

Its first product, called NURVV Run, is an insole that sits inside runners’ trainers and uses sensors to collect data on their running stride and technique to help prevent injury.

Jameson said using the technology to improve his technique had given his running ‘new focus and purpose’. Each insole sensor captures data from the feet at 1,000 times per second, and can be linked to fitness apps.

NURVV’s new funding round will help the firm branch out into other fitness trackers for cyclists and walkers. It could also be used by the military and in care homes to prevent falls by the elderly.

Innovation: NURVV Run is an insole that sits inside runners’ trainers and uses sensors to collect data on their running stride and technique to help prevent injury

The firm is working with former Olympic athlete Dame Kelly Holmes and the England Athletics Club to help Britons to run without becoming injured as they recover fitness after months of lockdown.

It has raised £21.2million to date, including £15.7million from Roberts and his wife Ulrica, £4million from venture capital firm Hiro Capital, and £1.5million from the Government’s Future Fund.

Research by Gartner predicted consumer spend on wearable technology will rise around 20 per cent to almost $81billion this year.

Roberts said: ‘The business opportunities are huge. We have barely scratched the surface in terms of the potential applications for NURVV’s biometric super-sensor technology.’