Photosynthesis Coach: The 'Personal Doctor' of the Fitness Industry Files for IPO

Photosynthesis Coach APP is a user-oriented platform that providesCustomized Online Fitness Coaching Servicesplatform. Its most distinctive feature is that professional coaches on the platform provide online, consultation-style customized fitness services. Based on users’ four major fitness goals—fat loss, body shaping, endurance improvement, and strength building—they tailor personalized exercise and dietary plans, offering end-to-end tracking and guidance to help users achieve their weight loss and fitness objectives safely and efficiently.

The Guanghe Coach app has been live for less than three weeks, accumulating over 3,000 core users, with a weekly active user rate exceeding 25%.

Photosynthesis Coach AppFounder & CEOHe Yewei told VCBeat, “This is a professional online consultation platform tailored to the sports-oriented population, akin to an Airbnb for sports.”Moreover, with our own development, as well as online interactive live streaming and VR、ARAs the technology becomes increasingly mature, we will be able to do more.”

Coaches offering online customized services on the Guanghe Coach platform primarily include professional strength and conditioning specialists, retired and active professional athletes, certified fitness trainers, and social sports instructors at various levels trained by the General Administration of Sport of China.

“We can leverage this platform to help a large number of retired Chinese athletes and sports industry professionals with specialized skills maximize their expertise, enabling millions of coaches to deliver greater value and positive energy to society through the Guanghe Coach APP, while earning legitimate income and gaining social recognition,” said He Yewei.

Strong Demand for User-Customized Services and the Underutilization of Coaches’ Professional Expertise

To trace the origins of the Guanghe Coaching Team’s involvement in the sports industry, one must begin with its founder and CEO, He Yewei.

He Yewei is the direct eldest grandson of He Zhenliang, the “Father of China’s Olympic Movement,” former Honorary Chairman of the Chinese Olympic Committee and member of the International Olympic Committee. Born into a family with a deep sporting heritage, he has been influenced by his grandfather and father since childhood, granting him a profound understanding of China’s sports industry.

What truly spurred He Yewei to embark on his entrepreneurial journey was the passing of his grandfather, He Zhenliang, in early 2015. “In his later years, my grandfather had always wanted to establish a foundation to support retired athletes,” He Yewei recalled. While his grandfather was still alive, their home often welcomed visitors seeking his advice on career paths after retirement. After his grandfather’s passing, He Yewei felt compelled to find practical solutions to improve the livelihoods of retired athletes, enabling them to realize their value with greater dignity—a vision he believed his grandfather would have wished to see fulfilled.

He Yewei told VCBeat that in recent years, more and more people have been posting about running and various other exercises on their WeChat Moments. Clearly, the trend of nationwide fitness has arrived, yet people still do not know how to engage in scientific and systematic fitness training and body shaping.

“Guanghe Coach’s primary target users are individuals engaged in sports and those seeking weight loss, a demographic that includes over 20 million”a market worth hundreds of millions of yuan.”Let’s look at a few key figures: In China, the number of people in urban and rural areas who engage in regular physical exercise each week has exceeded 500 million. However, only 5% of these individuals have received professional guidance. Yet, 77% of exercisers are eager to consult with coaches.Clearly, the need for pre-workout guidance among individuals engaging in physical activity before entering gyms remains entirely unmet.

Additionally, China has an obese population of over 200 million, among whom 62.6% have attempted weight loss more than once, and 13% have done so more than five times. Notably, 44% of individuals attempting weight loss identify the lack of professional guidance as the primary obstacle, while another 44% attribute their failure to incorrect methods.

He Yewei believes that while China's fitness market is enormous, there remains a significant gap between exercise enthusiasts and professional guidance.Existing Tool-Based Fitness Equipment on the MarketAPPDoes not possess the capacity for professional guidance, or even the possibility, because those apps are rigid programs that cannot establish a relationship between coaches and users, thusUnable to respond to the differentiated needs of different users, and even more so, unable to adjust fitness plans in a timely manner when user needs change.“It is certainly unscientific for tens of thousands of people to follow the same fitness regimen..” He Yewei said, “But,The presence of professional online coaches can perfectly address these issues. Moreover, by fostering a close relationship between coaches and users, user engagement and success rates in fitness programs can be significantly improved. Meanwhile, leveraging this strong connection offers substantial opportunities for commercialization.”

He Yewei stated that once Guanghe Coach has accumulated a sufficient user base, it will begin to explore commercialization opportunities. These include driving traffic to its e-commerce platform for the sale of fitness equipment, healthy meals, sports goods, and nutritional supplements; opening up services to enterprise clients; forging partnerships with the insurance industry and the maternal and infant market; and offering value-added training services for various professional sports disciplines.

Bind with a Dedicated Coach, Customize Your Workout Plan

On the Guanghe Coach app, users can obtain personalized exercise regimens—including workout and diet plans—by linking with a dedicated coach and communicating via text, images, voice messages, or real-time calls. The workout plans are presented through modular fitness videos.

It is worth noting that Guanghe Coach provides exercise plans with low barriers to entry, minimal time commitment, and low financial cost. These plans impose no special requirements on exercise duration, venue, or equipment, making them perfectly suitable for use at home, in the office, or while traveling. Meanwhile, users can assess the effectiveness of their exercise regimens through physical fitness self-tests offered via the app (including resting heart rate, breath-holding duration, timed push-ups, or timed sit-ups), enabling coaches to make timely adjustments to the overall exercise plan based on changes in the user’s physical condition.

Providing personalized exercise programs for users is the core competency of Guanghe Coach. The team at Guanghe Coach features an expert panel led by nationally renowned sports medicine specialists and scientific training coaches from national sports teams, who strictly oversee the quality of scientific training to ensure that all coaches deliver professional guidance to users.

Professional Background Team

He Yewei, Founder and CEO of the Guanghe Coach APP, serves as Deputy Secretary-General of the Beijing Olympic Culture Promotion Association. He brings eight years of experience in the sports industry and two years at a 4A advertising agency. He is also the founder of the Tour of Taihu Lake International Road Cycling Race and formerly served as Head of Marketing and Sponsorship at Peak Sport Products. His academic background includes an MBA from Tsinghua University, exchange studies at Tokyo Gakugei University in Japan, and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Beijing Normal University.

Co-founder and Chief Product Officer Zhang Aobo was formerly the head of Youku’s homepage and personalized services, as well as the head of China Unicom’s new mobile internet business.

Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer, currently serving as the scientific research coach for the National Boxing Team, and formerly as the scientific research coach for the National Diving, Swimming, Wrestling, and Women’s Handball Teams.

Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Zhang Maoliang is an expert in marketing for the Olympics and major sporting events, and formerly served as the head of brand communication strategy for the marathon projects at Zhimei Sports Group.

In addition, prominent figures in the sports world, including International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, IOC Executive Board Member and International Boxing Association (IBA) President Ching-Kuo Wu, Member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and President of the Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China Timothy Fok Tsun-ting, all serve as members of the Guanghe Coaching Advisory Team.

Guanghe Coach was established in June 2015, completed its seed funding round in October of the same year, and launched its WeChat official account in November. In March 2016, the official version of the Guanghe Coach app was released on the iOS platform. The team is currently raising Series A financing.