Exclusive: Outside acquires MapMyFitness apps from Under Armour

• MapMyFitness co-founder Kevin Callahan is the VP of product at Outside and will oversee the integration of the MapMyFitness suite into Outside's product offering.
• Getting his company back, "is a little surreal," Thurston said. "To have the opportunity to build and add on to something as part of the ecosystem that I've now built — it's really exciting."

Zoom in: MapMyFitness is a suite of GPS-based tracking apps across different sports. In addition to the general MapMyFitness app, Outside will acquire MapMyRide, MapMyRun and MapMyWalk apps.

• The apps will be integrated into Outside's digital platform, which has over 20 million registered users and 830,000 paid subscribers, Thurston told Axios in an interview.
• The MapMyFitness acquisition will put the company at "well over 1 million" paid subscribers, Thurston said. Its suite of apps will bring more than 80 million registered users to Outside's digital platform, giving the company unprecedented first-party data and advertising reach across outdoor and active lifestyle enthusiasts.
• In addition to owning dozens of outdoor enthusiast media brands, such as Yoga Journal, SKI, Climbing and Backpacker, Outside also owns mapping apps, including Gaia GPS and Trailforks.

Last week, Outside debuted an expansion of its digital platform to include a personalized social feed for users with content from Outside's media brands, as well as data and analytics from its suite of mapping and race-tracking apps.

• Users can share information with their feed followers, such as their workout summaries, finish-line photos and trail maps, and follow other outdoor enthusiasts or brands.
• Thurston sees an audience opportunity in aggregating media and services across all outdoor activities. "We're in a category that's extremely highly fragmented," he said.

Catch up quick: Outside was created in 2021 when Pocket Outdoor Media acquired five outdoor sports media and tech companies, including Outside Magazine, and changed its corporate name to "Outside."

• The company raised two rounds of capital in 2021, including a $150 million series B round led by Sequoia Heritage and a $157 million series C round from new investors like Madrone Capital Partners, QIC and Wellcome Trust, as well as existing investors.

By the numbers: Outside has never announced its valuation, but Thurston said the company, which today has over 400 employees, wasn't valued at over $1 billion after its last raise.

• The firm's valuation, he said, was reasonable given how inflated media valuations were in 2021 when the ad market was booming.
• Outside expects to turn a profit for the first time this year on over $100 million in top-line revenue, Thurston said.

Yes, but: The company's investment in technology services could make it more valuable long term. About half of the firm's revenue recurs annually. Recurring revenue tends to yield higher valuations than ad-based media.

• Around 35% of Outside's business comes from annual subscriptions to Outside+, a membership program. Roughly 15% comes from its software offerings, event registrations and race photography business. The remaining 50% comes from advertising.
• The company cut roughly 15% of its staff in 2022 to rightsize its business after several acquisitions the year prior, Thurston said. 2022 also saw a broader ad market slowdown that impacted dozens of media brands.

The big picture: Interest in hard news and politics has waned over the past few years. Amid a chaotic political environment and a volatile economy, Americans are turning their focus toward lifestyle and sports content.

• "I think from a consumer perspective, it's becoming more important to think about spending downtime in nature and experiencing the outdoors," Thurston said. "I think for brands, we're a pretty safe place to go to not have a lot of that other noise."