Move-to-earn app Sweat Economy, the team behind the most downloaded health and fitness app in the world, Sweatcoin has secured $13M in a funding round, including a private token sale – to accelerate their move into web3.
Several blockchain investors joined, including Electric Capital, Spartan Capital, Jump, NEAR Foundation, OKX Blockdream Ventures, Goodwater Capital, GSR Ventures, and industry figures Bjorn Wagner (co-founder of Polkadot), Sandeep Nailwal (co-founder of Polygon), and Vinny Lingham.
The funds will help the company to expand the Sweat Economy ecosystem and transform it into the Web3 on-ramp for health and fitness enthusiasts. The company aims to onboard the following billion users to crypto by rewarding their daily physical activity with SWEAT, a new cryptocurrency.
The ‘SWEAT’ crypto
Since its inception, Sweat Economy has seen over 11M non-custodial wallets created as anticipation builds for its Web3 application. Founded in 2015 as Sweatcoin – recently rebranded Sweat Economy, their goal is to incentivise healthier living by rewarding people for their movement. Further, Sweat Economy is also teaming with Near Protocol to support the app in its token generation.
With the ‘move-to-earn’ game, players can download a mobile app, walk or exercise, and then get rewarded with tokens called — SWEAT — a cryptocurrency which will be launched on the NEAR protocol – is slated to begin listing on crypto exchanges beginning in mid-September. SWEAT can also be staked to earn passive income to start your high-yield savings account or any income generation ideas, and used as a governance token for a DAO, or decentralised autonomous organisation.
Sweatcoin allows users to track their steps on a daily basis and rewards them with an in-game digital currency. It has 100M users and is also known as “Airmiles for steps.” These can be redeemed for branded products, digital services, and charitable donations. Users exchanged over $70M worth of value for their Sweatcoins in Q1 ’22.
How does it work?
There is no initial payment or purchase of an NFT required for users to start earning. By simply downloading the app, users’ steps are counted, validated, and converted into sweatcoins. All Sweatcoins held by users on the date of TGE will be matched with SWEAT, the cryptocurrency, while still keeping all their previously earned sweatcoins.
Post TGE, a user’s first 5,000 daily steps will convert into SWEAT with all steps above the 5K daily limit accumulated in Web2 sweatcoins as before.
Sweat Economy Co-Founder Oleg Fomenko says, “We’re delighted to partner with such an illustrious group of investors with their deep cumulative experience of the space and strong track record of investing in and supporting game-changing startups. These partners support our vision of bringing the next billion into web 3, and we’re confident that Sweat Economy will play a key role in realising that goal.”
Avichal Garg, General Partner at Electric Capital, says, “We have been impressed by the rapid growth from the Sweat ecosystem. They have already created a global, Web2 Movement-Economy of millions. Because of the ease of participating in the Sweat ecosystem, they can help millions worldwide participate in the decentralized Web3 economy. We are delighted to work with them to further their mission.”
Kelvin Koh, Co-founder & Partner, CIO at Spartan Capital, says, “Web3 onboarding can be daunting to many as it often involves a steep learning curve. Sweatcoin is providing users with a new way to exercise and earn, all while lowering the entry barrier and reducing the technical know-how. The team has a proven track record, and we are excited to support them to provide users with better incentives and to introduce the next 100 million users onto web3.”
