Paris-based startup Kotcha, co-founded with marathon legend Eliud Kipchoge and the NN Operating Crew, has raised €3.5 million in pre-seed funding to make skilled operating teaching obtainable to runners worldwide. The spherical was led by Racine2, operated by Serena and makesense, with participation from True World, Motier Ventures and different buyers from the buyer, well being and sports activities sectors.
Kotcha makes use of AI to recreate the athlete and coach relationship, delivering adaptive, personalised steerage that evolves with every runner’s efficiency. The app goals to bridge the hole between generic coaching apps, which generally value round €20 per thirty days, and human coaches, who can value as much as €100 per thirty days. With demand for operating races rising quickly, the London Marathon alone obtained over 1.1 million entries for 2026, twice as many as in 2024, Kotcha provides a scalable resolution to fulfill the rising curiosity whereas sustaining the non-public help of actual teaching.
“Operating is a group sport,” stated Eliud Kipchoge, the one individual to finish a marathon in underneath two hours. “With out my coaches and teammates, I’d by no means have pushed human limits. With Kotcha, we needed to share not simply the coaching construction, however the full help system that made it potential.”
Kipchoge and the NN Operating Crew had been immediately concerned within the app’s improvement. “Sharing our information has all the time been our mission. Creating an app was the following step, however we wanted the suitable companions,” stated Marleen Vink-Rennings, Advertising and marketing Director at NN Operating Crew.
The founding group contains Eliud Kipchoge, Ben Dupont (CEO), Michel-André Chirita (CTO), Dimitri Dor (CMO) and the NN Operating Crew. The group combines elite operating experience with startup expertise, having labored collectively at Kipchoge’s Kaptagat coaching camp to embed his philosophy into the platform.
“We didn’t need one other coaching plan generator,” stated Ben Dupont. “Magazines as soon as provided generic plans, and apps later digitised them with fundamental personalisation. Kotcha is the following technology of coaching expertise, an AI-powered app you may discuss to, recreating the connection between an athlete and their teaching group. This teaching group is step one in bringing our imaginative and prescient to life, that operating is definitely a group sport.”
Validated with over 300 runners, Kotcha delivers a dependable and adaptive expertise for athletes of all ranges. Not like most operating apps that lock customers into inflexible 12 or 16-week plans, Kotcha recreates the texture of an actual teaching group with 4 AI coaches: Head Coach, Nutritionist, Information Analyst and Private Coach, all skilled on NN Operating Crew strategies.
“AI usually lacks context and falls wanting runners’ expectations,” added Dupont. “We’re constructing Kotcha to know every runner’s targets, coaching load and patterns, so steerage feels prefer it comes from a coach who actually is aware of you.”
Key options embody weekly personalised coaching plans that alter primarily based on efficiency and suggestions, pre- and post-run steerage, and round the clock solutions to coaching, vitamin and restoration questions. Within the coming weeks, Kotcha will even enable real-time plan changes, robotically modifying periods when customers have restricted time on account of work or private commitments.
“Our goal is to not change human coaches, however to make teaching extra accessible and to assist extra folks obtain their operating targets,” stated Marleen Vink-Rennings.
“That is simply the beginning line,” stated Dupont. “We raised this spherical to convey our imaginative and prescient to life, enhancing bodily, psychological and social well-being by means of operating.”
Margaux Bussière, Principal at Racine2, added, “Few actions form each physique and thoughts like operating. Kotcha brings that have into a brand new period, connecting expertise, empathy and precision in a approach that feels genuinely human. It’s the youngest firm we’ve ever backed, and one we selected to help from day one as a result of its ambition resonates deeply with our values.”
Kotcha is offered from 23 October on the App Retailer worldwide in French and English, designed for runners coaching for races from 10k to marathon distances.
Keep forward of the curve with NextBusiness 24. Discover extra tales, subscribe to our publication, and be part of our rising group at nextbusiness24.com
