Alibaba Group’s sports arm Alisports is teaming up with Chinese gym and sports retail outlet company Hosa in a bid to expand its New Retail offerings for sports products.
Alisports and Hosa will work together to integrate online and offline commerce, and as part of the agreement, Alisports will carry Hosa’s products on its Tmall store.
Alisports closed a US$190 million series-A funding round last month led by Hong Kong-based Yunfeng Capital, which counts Alibaba’s Jack Ma as one of its founders. The funding round gave Alisports a valuation of more than $1 billion, making it a unicorn company.
With a network of 160 gyms in China as well as a chain of sportswear stores, Hosa will also work with Alisports to develop sports training courses to be promoted and sold offline in Hosa’s retail stores.
The Hong Kong-listed sporting goods retailer will also share with Alisports its consumer shopping pattern data as well as information on its gym members.
“Hosa is a sports and fitness company that advocates exercise and a healthy lifestyle, and Alisports is an internet company that is on a mission to make exercise easy for everyone. Together, we can do more for the sports and fitness industry,” says Alisports chief executive Zhang Dazhong.
Last month the company acquired Chinese fitness app Ledongli, which offers a steps-tracking app that has amassed more than 55 million users.
Alisports was established in 2015, its business encompassing television and digital sports rights, as well as venue commercialisation and sports event organisation.
