Health · Lifestyle
The GCC’s largest low-cost gym operator just closed its biggest deal yet
Eight years after opening a single gym in Al Quoz, GymNation has secured a $100 million private credit facility from HPS, part of BlackRock, to fuel expansion to 100 locations and into international markets.
There is a version of this story that gets told as a numbers exercise: $100 million, 50 locations, 200,000 members, a new Riyadh headquarters. The numbers are real and they are significant. But the more interesting story is what they represent. GymNation, founded in Dubai in 2018 on the straightforward premise that world-class fitness should be affordable to anyone, has become one of the most compelling entrepreneurial narratives the GCC has produced.
The investment, a $75 million committed facility with a $25 million accordion, comes from HPS Investment Partners, part of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. It is one of the largest private credit facilities ever raised by a GCC-born, founder-led consumer brand.
The Expansion
100 locations. A Riyadh HQ. And a first move into Asia.
The capital will be deployed across three areas. First, continued growth across the GCC, with a pipeline targeting more than 100 locations within three years, building on an established presence in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain. Second, further investment in GymNation’s proprietary technology platform, the data and AI infrastructure that underpins its unit economics. Third, international expansion beyond the GCC into markets where demand for affordable, high-quality fitness remains significantly underpenetrated. The first international market will be in Asia, with an announcement coming soon.
The Founders
Built in the UAE. Backed by the world’s largest asset manager.
Loren Holland, Frank Afeaki, and Ant Martland founded GymNation with the conviction that the region’s appetite for fitness was both real and underserved at the affordable end of the market. A management buyout in 2023, supported by Ruya Partners and Tricap Investments, gave the founding team full control of the business. The HPS transaction also marks a successful exit for Ruya Partners, whose early conviction made that foundation possible.
More than 50 members of GymNation’s senior leadership team have been granted participation in the company’s long-term incentive equity plan, aligning management and shareholders as the business enters its next phase.
For Boujeez
What a $100 million deal signals about fitness culture in the Gulf
GymNation is a consumer brand that Gulf residents interact with directly. It is proof that a business built around accessibility rather than exclusivity can attract institutional capital at the highest level. That is a meaningful signal for how fitness culture is maturing across the region, and for the kind of founder-led stories the GCC is now capable of producing on the global stage.
