Cult.fit Clears SEBI for a ₹950 Crore Fresh Issue; Two Reports Disagree on FY25 Revenue
Startups / news
Cult.fit Clears SEBI for a ₹950 Crore Fresh Issue; Two Reports Disagree on FY25 Revenue
The fitness chain can now list on BSE and NSE, but no price band or valuation is public, and the existing-holder sale may be three times the new money.
Cult.fit, the fitness chain formerly called Curefit Healthcare, received final observations from SEBI on October 12 for an IPO of up to ₹950 crore in new shares plus up to 17.86 crore existing shares, according to Inc42. Clearance is not pricing: neither Inc42 nor Entrackr reports a price band, an opening date or a valuation.
The company filed its draft red herring prospectus in July. Entrackr says the shares will list on BSE and NSE, and both reports name Axis Capital, Goldman Sachs, Jefferies India, JM Financial and Morgan Stanley India as book-running lead managers.
Cult.fit IPO: ₹950 crore fresh issue, a larger sale by existing holders
The offer for sale is where the money goes to existing holders rather than to the company. Inc42 lists the sellers as Temasek, through MacRitchie Investments, Schroders Capital, the German fitness operator LifeFit Group, Accel, Tata Digital and cofounder Mukesh Bansal. Entrackr says only "existing shareholders".
Inc42 puts the total offer at about ₹4,000 crore and does not tie that figure to a filing. If it is right, the ₹950 crore fresh issue is 24% of the offer, and the remaining ₹3,050 crore, about 76%, is existing holders selling. That split is arithmetic on one report's total, so treat it as a yardstick until the prospectus carries a price.
The company says fresh proceeds will go to repaying or prepaying certain borrowings, new Cult Elite and Cult Neo centres, new Cultsport outlets, lease and rental costs on existing centres, brand marketing and general corporate purposes. Debt repayment sits first in Entrackr's list.
Revenue of ₹1,720.61 crore, but the two reports disagree on the FY25 base
Both reports give FY26 operating revenue of about ₹1,720.6 crore. They diverge on the FY25 base. Entrackr has ₹1,262.93 crore, which makes FY26 growth 36.26%; Inc42 has ₹1,215.5 crore, a 41.5% rise. The gap is ₹47 crore, and neither report says whether one is restated or measured on a different basis.
| Figure | Entrackr | Inc42 |
|---|---|---|
| FY26 operating revenue | ₹1,720.61 crore | ₹1,720.6 crore |
| FY25 operating revenue | ₹1,262.93 crore | ₹1,215.5 crore |
| FY26 growth | 36.26% | 41.5% |
| Profitability | Adjusted EBITDA margin 8.41%, from -2.76% | Net loss ₹251.8 crore, from ₹480.8 crore |
- FY24926.66 ₹ crore
- FY251262.93 ₹ crore
- FY261720.61 ₹ crore
Source: Entrackr, 16 October 2026, accessed 2026-10-16
The profit lines are the more useful pair. An adjusted EBITDA margin of 8.41% on ₹1,720.61 crore is about ₹145 crore of positive operating profit on the company's adjusted measure. Against that, the net loss was ₹251.8 crore. Combining the two reports, about ₹397 crore sits between those lines, and neither report itemises it. The net loss did narrow by 48%, from ₹480.8 crore.
708 centres in 77 cities, and 490 of them are not company-run
As of March 31, 2026, Cult.fit ran 708 fitness centres in 77 cities with about 9.87 lakh paid members. Inc42 splits them into 218 company-owned and operated, 288 franchise-operated and 202 run by independent owners. That means 490 of the 708 are not run by the company directly. Fitness services made up about 70% of revenue and products about 30%; the company shipped more than 42.3 lakh fitness products in FY26.
Inc42 says the company has raised more than $800 million in total. It follows Zetwerk's IPO onto the Indian listing calendar, and the loss-making consumer model is the same one Urban Company is being judged on.
What to watch after SEBI's October 12 observations
The next observable event is the updated prospectus, which should carry the price band and the sale split between fresh and existing shares. Until it does, the ₹4,000 crore total and the FY25 revenue figure both rest on one report each.
Sources
More in Startups
- 01Leverage Edu's EBITDA Is ₹2 Crore in Filings, ₹9.5 Crore From SourcesTwo reports on the study-abroad startup's FY26 results differ by ₹7.5 crore on EBITDA, the same gap as between its total income and operating revenue, while a ₹500 crore pre-IPO round is under discussion.
- 02Disney's Estimated Character.AI Payroll Is Three Times Its $20 Million BidA bankruptcy filing reported by Bloomberg puts Disney's offers to at least 60 Character.AI employees at about $60 million a year, while the company's stalking horse bid for its assets is $20 million.
- 03Sebi Clears Cult.fit IPO, Where Sellers Could Take 76% of ₹4,000 CroreThe regulator's Oct. 12 observations let Cult.fit list, but only ₹950 crore of the issue is new money for the company and the full size rests on an unfiled figure.
- 04Benchmark Partners Expect Rival Conflicts as Factory and Cognition FeudThree Benchmark partners told TechCrunch Disrupt that backing competitors is becoming unavoidable, 15 days after Factory accused a board adviser of passing information to Cognition, both of which Khosla Ventures funds.