Dubai-founded Enhance raises $18.2 million to push deeper into US gym market

A GCC-built software platform is quietly becoming infrastructure for some of America's biggest gym chains. Enhance, founded in Dubai in 2018, has closed an $18.2 million equity and venture debt round, with Global Ventures leading the equity side and Stride Ventures providing the debt. The milestone says something about where GCC tech is heading.

Enhance started as a personal training services business before becoming a SaaS platform for multi-site gym operators. Today it supports 15,000 personal trainers and more than 500,000 booked sessions per month across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and the US. Revenue has grown at a 65% compound annual rate since 2019.

The US operation is the story here. Since January 2025, Enhance's enterprise software has been licensed across 700+ clubs, including Crunch Fitness, UFC Gym, In-Shape Family Fitness, and PureGym USA. That makes Enhance one of the first GCC-built platforms deployed at scale in the American market.

The money will be used for...

• Accelerating US expansion across major national gym chains
• Deepening enterprise partnerships where Enhance manages PT operations end-to-end, not just software
• Building toward a position as the default operating standard for the $42 billion global personal training market

Why does it matter?

Personal training is the most profitable revenue line in fitness, but also the least organised. At mature high-volume, low-price gym sites using Enhance, PT revenues can reach $85,000 per club per month. A gym with 10,000 to 12,000 members that converts just 3% to 4% into PT clients can generate revenue comparable to its total membership income. That's the commercial case Enhance is selling, and so far it's working.

Enhance also argues it has a data advantage competitors can't buy. Eight years of session-level data covering trainer performance, member retention, and revenue patterns would take a new entrant almost a decade to replicate.

The context

In the GCC, Enhance runs the entire PT operation for GymNation across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain. Saudi Arabia is its fastest-growing market outside the US, driven by a rapid rise in first-time gym participants. The company also operates in Qatar.

So this isn't just a funding story. It's a signal that software built in the Gulf can win in developed Western markets on merit, not geography. For regional health policymakers watching Vision 2030's fitness and wellness targets, Enhance is evidence that local tech ecosystems can produce category-defining companies, not just regional ones.