Alta – a ‘category killer’ in the mixed martial arts (MMA) training market – has mandated a leading New York investment bank to commence the process of listing on a US exchange in an initial public offering (IPO) which is expected to occur before the end of the year. In preparation for the listing, the company is completing a wholesale private placement of US$3.5 million. Reach Markets is managing an upcoming offer for Alta, open to wholesale investors only. To request the offer docs once they are available, click here. MMA has captured the world’s attention in recent years to become a sport with more than 630 million fans across ~190 broadcast countries – one of the fastest growing fanbases in world sport and quoted by some as being the third most popular sport on the planet behind only soccer and basketball. Targeting this largely underserved and undervalued martial arts market is Alta, a global sports fit-tech platform that offers a spectrum of products and services ranging from digital content consumption, through fan and online training subscriptions, to retail purchases and ultimately to premium priced immersive ‘in gym’ training experiences. “Martial arts academies have a superb on-the-mats product, but they are ripe for transformation when it comes to customer onboarding, engagement and optimising sales and revenue,” CEO and Founder Nick Langton said. “The most valuable company in the MMA sports vertical will be the one that converts 600+ million fans to participants. Alta will be that company.” Alta’s technology marketplace enables and monetises an ecosystem of MMA fans, gyms and coaches. This provides the former with hassle-free onboarding into the MMA community and curated customer journeys, and the latter with new revenue streams, premium customer channels as well as the marketing and administration solutions they need to attract and retain customers. By 2025, an estimated 8+ million people are expected to undertake martial arts training in the US alone. To service the demand, the country is forecast to have more than 67,000 martial arts gyms in the same timeframe. “Despite the sport’s spectacular growth and significant addressable market, there is no online marketplace dedicated to it nor a centralised platform that can drive client acquisition, marketing, payments and education. In this respect, we have an opportunity to accelerate an aggressive land grab across multiple revenue verticals,” Mr Langton said.

Monetising the MMA marketplace

In the six months up to March 2023, Alta grew its global active gym footprint from 46 to 180, part of a larger curated and proprietary database of potential active gyms which grew from 141 to 3,750 in the same period. Alta’s brand of MMA instruction and fitness has now reached more than 14,000 participants and has generated more than A$11 million in revenue for partner gyms worldwide, which Mr Langton thinks ‘proves deep product market fit and unrivalled sector credibility amongst consumers, gyms and coaches alike.’ Moreover, Alta’s partnership with Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) gym vertical, UFC Fit, provides a A$50+ million annual revenue opportunity across more than 200 locations globally with more than 800 new sites in development. UFC Fit is the world’s largest chain of martial arts academies. “Alta has built iconic partnerships with some of the most exciting and respected identities in MMA. Collectively, this provides us with a reach of more than 60 million followers on social media and the potential to create viral posts with massive organic reach,” Mr Langton said. Among its brand ambassadors are John Kavanagh, coach of MMA superstar Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier, former Olympian and two division UFC Champion, and Laura Sanko, MMA fighter and one of UFC and ESPN’s most popular broadcasters. Mr Langton founded Alta with John Kavanagh and he believes Alta’s highly scalable technology, key industry partnerships and growing market share makes the company a ‘category killer’ in the fast-growing martial arts and MMA fitness market. Reach Markets is managing an upcoming offer for Alta, open to wholesale investors only. To request the offer docs once they are available, click here.

The future of combat sports and Alta

Professional MMA leagues like UFC and ONE Championship have aggressively driven growth of the MMA fan base and, in the process, have themselves achieved multi billion-dollar valuations. UFC is set to become part of a US$21 billion company following a potential merger with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and the new entity TKO Group Holdings plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) before the end of 2023. “There’s a lot of excitement in this sports vertical as it relates to exposure through listed companies and capital markets,” Mr Langton said, admitting that the business is ‘unashamedly’ raising funds to accelerate its ‘land grab’ in the sector. “We are one round away from Alta’s end game, and that is to establish ourselves as a category defining destination for fans and participants in combat sports globally and become one of the most envied sports fitness brands in the world,” Mr Langton said. By 2025, the business believes it can extend its active gym footprint to more than 2,400 and is forecasting gross revenues of A$123.6 million, which represents only 1.8% of the current total US market spend on martial arts training. Reach Markets is managing an upcoming offer for Alta, open to wholesale investors only. To request the offer docs once they are available, click here. Reach Corporate provides Corporate Advisory Services including managing this offer for Alta Global Group Ltd and may receive fees for its services.   Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

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