For the Wellness Briefing, Glossy spoke with Ivy Wu, vice president of growth at Classpass, about the booking app’s ongoing strategy shift towards wellness- and experience-based offerings. Additionally, the World Cup anoints new global wellness thought leaders, FDA meets this week to assess regulatory changes of peptides like BPC-157, and Neko Health takes on $700 million in Series C funding ahead of its Q3 debut in the U.S.
Classpass is evolving to reach more consumers through wellness, self-care, experiences, and F&B
“We’re trying to be the anti-tech tech company, where we want to get people off their phones and into real-life, soul-nurturing experiences,” Ivy Wu, vice president of growth at Classpass, told Glossy. “Our ultimate vision is helping people discover and experience new things, whether it is a new spa or salon treatment, a brand new fitness genre, a new exhibition that is opening, or a new smoothie bowl that nourishes your body.”
On Tuesday, Classpass announced the addition of several new bookable categories, including amusement parks, aquariums, zoos and other attractions. Upon launch, this includes select Six Flags, Legoland and Sea World locations, plus the Kennedy Space Center, Phoenix Zoo and Georgia Aquarium, among other attractions. In total, the organization added 190 new bookable offerings this week.
The backbone of Classpass’s new strategy is wellness and self-care — however that looks for its millions of global subscribers. These changes come at a time when consumers are demanding more wellness-focused amenities and services within hospitality, travel and fitness settings.
“Wellness is so different for so many people, and we want to be able to meet those needs,” Wu said. “For us, it’s a lot about opening these experiences to everyone and making it very accessible to all folks.”
Tuesday’s announcement comes on the heels of Classpass expanding its movie offerings in February with partnerships with Regal Cinemas and Look Dine-In Cinemas. In 2024, Classpass quietly began beta testing limited food and beverage offerings in certain markets like NYC and Miami. The category launched with wellness basics like smoothies and grain bowls. It’s still currently testing this category.
“Our mission has always been to give users one flexible way to access wellness, however they define it,” Fritz Lanman, CEO of Playlist, said in a statement. “Adding theme parks, zoos and aquariums extends that mission to even more of the experiences our users love, while giving these venues a powerful new channel for attendance and incremental revenue.”
Classpass currently offers more than 88,000 bookable venues across 31 countries. In December 2025, fitness reservations increased 36% year over year, while wellness reservations rose by 37%, according to the company.
While pilates, yoga and strength training topped Classpass’ 2025 fitness reservations, its fastest-growing fitness classes that year were sports recovery, low-impact training and racquet sports. When it comes to wellness, the most booked appointments in 2025 included massage, nail and sauna appointments, while its fastest-growing appointments for the year included stretching, cosmetic treatments and spa treatments.
This week’s announcement is based on Classpass’ new partnership with EBG, a leading entertainment and travel commerce platform.
Classpass launched in 2013 as a flat-rate subscription fitness booking app and has since expanded into a credit-based subscription model where users can book fitness and recovery group classes, wellness and self-care services, experiences, movies, and beauty services of all kinds. In 2025, parent company Mindbody-Classpass merged with Booker to create parent company Playlist. Playlist is valued at more than $7.5 billion.
Wu has been with Classpass for nine years. As VP of growth, her primary goal is to grow Classpass partners, customers and corporate clients who purchase memberships for its employees, the latter being the fast-growing sector of the business.
As it expands, Classpass is working to retain its partnership with boutique fitness studios. To do so, the company rolled out a laundry list of internal changes this summer. This included making reviews non-anonymous, expanding communications to students about individual studio policies and introducing backend analytics tools for studios hoping to better map their performance. Classpass also added stronger protections against users abusing intro offers and a dedicated customer service team for studios, plus compensation for Classpass-waived missed-class fees.
“This is a huge industry, and we know that wellness will continue to grow,” Wu said. “The only way to continue to survive and thrive in this [industry] is to always be iterating — so we love that, as a company, our ethos is that we’re always thinking about the next thing.”
Executive moves:
- Irene Becklund, longtime chief accounting officer of Hims & Hers, will depart the company after 7 years, effective October 9. Her CV includes Minted and advisory firm KPMG.
- Chequan Lewis is the new CEO of Crunch Fitness. He was promoted to the role in June after two and a half years as president of the organization. He replaced Jim Rowley, who served as CEO for seven years and currently serves as executive chairman. Lewis’ CV includes COO of Pizza Hut.
News to know:
- After many months of speculation across the media, the Food and Drug Administration will meet with its Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee this week to assess the loosening of regulation of certain popular peptides like BPC-157, TB-500 and MOTs-C. The meetings, set to take place July 23 and 24 in Maryland, could result in the eventual reclassification of some peptides to allow compounding pharmacies to formulate and sell to consumers. However, these changes, if passed, would be slow and incremental, with some experts speculating that additional peptide availability would not be seen by consumers until 2027.
- The 2026 FIFA World Cup, which brought in record-breaking viewership, is officially over, with Spain taking home the World Cup trophy, $50 million in prize money and an automatic spot in the 2030 tournament. But it’s not over for the wellness industry. The tournament anointed several new wellness thought leaders who are now ripe for partnerships. This includes Erling Haaland, Norway’s ‘striking Viking’ who scored seven goals during the tournament. Haaland is known for his wellness routine, which includes whole foods, red light therapy, meditation and more. The most-viewed video on his YouTube channel, which has 3.2 million subscribers, is a DITL breaking down his self-care routine. Meanwhile, England’s Jude Bellingham had a fantastic tournament, also scoring seven goals. Bellingham signed on as a global partner and ambassador for men’s body-care brand Onside, which sells exclusively at Target. Then there’s Harry Kane and Declan Rice, both of whom nabbed contracts with Oura to promote its new, slimmer model 5 health tracker ring.
- Speaking of soccer, David Beckham-founded supplement brand IMB has taken on $1 billion in growth financing from venture capital company General Catalyst. The line is owned by Prenetics, a health sciences company based in Hong Kong, and sells daily supplement drink mixes.
- Neko Health, the Swedish full-body imaging company launched in 2023, has taken on $700 million in Series C funding ahead of its U.S. debut later this summer. Neko provides competition for Prenuvo and Function Health-owned Ezra for those seeking elective, preventative imaging. Neko has taken on more than $6 billion in funding.
Stat of the week:
The fast-growing U.S. wellness economy surpassed $2 trillion dollars in 2024, according to industry advocacy group The Global Wellness Institute. A new report published in April found that the category grew at a 7.9% compound annual growth rate between 2019 and 2024. Wellness economy per capita spending in the U.S. reached $6,293 for 2024. The sector now accounts for 7.33% of the nation’s GDP, according to the report.
In the headlines:
The World Cup provided a much-needed boost to the retail industry this summer [Modern Retail]. Marriott’s Lefay acquisition signals a future of wellness cobranding [HospitalityNet]. How cravings for social connection are changing Montreal’s wellness industry [The Gazette]. Five things the World Cup taught marketers about creators [Digiday]. How is wellness reshaping superyacht design? [Superyacht Times]. The Gen Z Healf brothers leading Britain’s £97bn wellness boom [The Times]. Luxury homes are driving the next wave of the wellness economy [Newsweek]. Planet Fitness taps Apple Music for in-gym pop-ups, subscription deal [AthletechNews].
Need a Glossy recap?
Inside Oura’s winning bet on the World Cup — and what it means for the brand’s 2027 roadmap. Sam’s Club takes Manhattan for wellness event with creators. The Nue Co. expects fragrance to reach 85% of sales as Ulta fuels growth. Ingredient-led brands are dominating AI beauty citations. Why Rare Beauty is taking a ‘story-first’ approach to celebrity ambassadors. Victoria’s Secret Pink’s Gen-Z-focused holiday strategy, with president Ali Dillon. Private shopping is powering Toccin’s international expansion. Sneaker brands are slowing their drops to combat sneaker fatigue.
