Hyrox Founders Sold Control, Grew 7x, Bought It Back

Hyrox, the mass-participation fitness racing series, has reportedly changed hands for around US$700 million (AU$983 million) — and its two founders exited the deal owning more of the company than they did before it started.

Christian Toetzke and Moritz Fürste founded Hyrox in Hamburg in 2017. The reported sale to a group led by L Catterton, the private equity firm backed by LVMH, with Jeffrey Katzenberg's WndrCo alongside, caps a 16-month stretch in which the business scaled from roughly US$140 million (AU$197 million) in revenue to US$270 million (AU$379 million), and from 650,000 participants across 83 events to 1.4 million participants across more than 100 events in 30 countries.

Last May, Jason Andrew assessed Hyrox's revenue at US$140 million and estimated gross margins near 80%, largely because the event packs up and moves to the next city each week. At the time, the founders said no exit was planned.

Three sales, one strategy

Toetzke and Fürste have sold equity three times. In December 2019, they sold a minority stake to Infront Sports and Media, a Swiss sports marketing group that sells sponsorships and events. Hyrox ran 14 events a season at that point. Infront's announcement said the investment would "accelerate that growth further." Puma, Red Bull and other major partners then came on board.

In October 2022, the founders sold control. Infront took just over half the company when Hyrox was running 45 events a year across six countries with about 90,000 participants. Toetzke set a target of half a million participants within four years. By 2026, that target had been beaten nearly 3x, ahead of schedule.

In September 2026, Infront sold its entire stake to the L Catterton-led group. In this deal, Toetzke and Fürste reportedly increased their combined ownership from 40% to 51%, with L Catterton and WndrCo holding the remaining 49% as minority partners.

The full terms are not public. What is known is that the founders kept their shares and bought back roughly 11% of the company for approximately US$70 million (AU$98 million), funded with cash from earlier deals plus personal borrowing. L Catterton and WndrCo bought the rest.

The founders understood that scaling from 14 events a season to 100 or more requires serious capital. They also understood that owning 40% of a company worth $500 million beats owning 100% of one that stays small.

The playbook for smaller owners

For small business owners, the same strategy plays out at a smaller scale. Three rules apply: keep as much equity as possible while raising the capital you need; pick a partner for what they can do operationally, not just what they will pay; and agree in writing, before closing, what happens when the investor wants out — including first right to buy their shares and a say in who they sell to.

Australia's mid-market shows what investors screen for. Altira Private Equity is looking to invest $100 million into Australian small businesses with profits between $1 million and $10 million. "We are not looking for a business that needs us to run it," says Gary Brown, Head of Investments at Altira Private Equity. "We are looking for companies who know exactly where the next stage of growth is and who cannot get there on their own balance sheet."

Brown says funded businesses share three traits: earnings that do not depend on the founder's personal relationships, a management layer that can run the week without them, and a specific growth plan. "If an owner can show me those, we become very interested."

The Beijing sideshow

Hyrox's recent headlines included a world record holder continuing a race in Beijing under extreme physical duress. The founders apologised within 48 hours, changed the rulebook, and announced refunds for everyone who ran after that day. The timing was fortunate: the incident landed after the deal closed.

The Beijing controversy is what people will remember this month, but the deal structure is the real story. Two founders sold control, used someone else's money and resources to grow the business roughly sevenfold, and bought control back — a sequence that turned a US$70 million buyback into majority ownership of a company worth close to a billion dollars.