Sweatcoin is an app that has exploded in the last few weeks. Currently, the number 1 health and fitness app and the number 3 free app Sweatcoin rewards its users depending on how many steps they take by paying out in monetary "sweat" value. So for instance, for every 1,000 steps recorded, the app will pay out .95 in "sweatcoins." Users can then trade the coins in for workout classes or fitness gear. One important caveat is that the app will not record your steps if you are walking on a treadmill. It only works if you are walking around physical areas.
On the free tier - users can only receive five coins a day, however, in order to get to the upper tier, you'll have to hand over some of that hard earned coin! Sweatcoin has recently raised $5.7 million in seed funding from investors like Goodwater Capital. Greylock also participated through its Discovery Fund, as did Rubylight, Seedcamp, SmartHub and other angel investors like Justin Kan and Rain Lohmus.
In case you haven't been keeping up with your angel investor network - Justin Kan is an entrepreneur and investor who contributes to TechCrunch and is a partner at Y Combinator.
The founders of Sweatcoin say they plan on using the funding to expand past the U.S. first targeting English-speaking countries and later to Europe and Asia. The founders have high aspirations with this startup. Co-founder Anton Derlyatka mentioned that he'd even like to "include the ability to pay taxes with sweatcoin" in the future.
If you workout - would this be something you would use?