NFL and PGA Stars Join $12.5M Raise for Plano-Based Workout Tech Startup

Plano-based digital fitness systems startup OxeFit has announced new funding from backers including PGA golfer Dustin Johnson and Los Angeles Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey.

That brings OxeFit's total funding to more than $35 million, including existing backing from current and former Dallas Cowboys players Dak Prescott, Jason Witten, Dez Bryant, and Blake Jarwin.

OxeFit co-founder and CEO Mohammed “Rab” Shanableh says he knew that if the company’s fitness tech could find success among pro athletes, it could do the same in the home consumer space. And he’s finding more than brand ambassadors in athletes who use his system: he’s finding new investors.

The Plano-based digital fitness systems company has announced new funding from backers including PGA golfer Dustin Johnson and Los Angeles Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey.

“The things that people look for in a gym or a performance center, or what a college or a sports team look for, it’s exactly what we have built as the principles of the design of [our technology],” Shanableh told Dallas Innovates. “Working out is no longer just for the athletes, it’s for everybody. Everybody wants to stay healthy. It’s a huge market, and we haven’t even scratched the surface yet.”

Funding brings OxeFit’s total to $35 million

OxeFit XS1. [Photo: OxeFit]

While not disclosing the specific amount, OxeFit said the new funding brings its total to more than $35 million, following a $12.5 million Series A round led by Plano- and Florida-based Lydia Partners last February. With the new funding, Johnson and Ramsey join a list of other celebrity athletes backing OxeFit, including current and former Dallas Cowboys players Dak Prescott, Jason Witten, Dez Bryant, and Blake Jarwin.

Combining artificial intelligence and robotics, OxeFit’s device gives users different strength training and cardio workout options. In addition to providing workout video content, the company’s software is able to track user motions to provide feedback, customize training, and track fitness goals.

“The whole area of performance training and rehab is coming together in one single space,” Shanableh said. “Different people have different goals in life, but having the right machinery that can be controlled by software to do different agility and exclusive type movements, and being able to get the data in real-time, is essential to what we do.”

Q1 2022 sales surpass all sales for 2021

Shanableh said the company first targeted the professional, collegiate, and rehab markets with the launch of its XP1 product in April 2021. The quality and capabilities demanded in those spaces are easier to put into a consumer-focused device, he said, rather than trying to upgrade a consumer device for the professional market. OxeFit launched its consumer-focused XS1 device at the end of last year, and it has already surpassed the XP1 in sales.

“We wanted to attack the harder problem,” Shanableh said. “By attacking the harder problem, we have a much more powerful product. Now those same principles apply to the consumer.”

With the new funding, Shanableh said the company plans to build things out on both the hardware and software side, adding things like concentric and eccentric loading functionalities, along with new workout content and engagement tools. OxeFit is now scaling its products to thousands of units, rather than hundreds, he said, revealing that his company has had more sales in the first quarter this year than it did all of last year.

“Now it’s time to scale and, at some point, we may raise another round and grow this thing to the next level,” Shanableh said. “One thing about the startup environment is…you’ve always got to continue to innovate.”