French startup Kotcha, co-founded with marathon legend Eliud Kipchoge and the NN Running Team, has raised 

 to make world-class coaching accessible to every runner. Using AI to recreate the athlete–coach relationship, Kotcha delivers adaptive, personalized guidance at scale.

The round is led by Racine², operated by Serena and makesense, with participation from True Global, Motier Ventures and other investors from the consumer, health, running & sports world.

Demand for races is booming. The London Marathon received over 

, twice as many as in 2024. Yet access to personalized coaching remains limited: runners must choose between generic apps (~€20/month) and human coaches (€100/month). Kotcha bridges this gap with an 

 that adapts in real time to each runner’s needs.

Kotcha: when AI meets Olympic champion expertise

, the only person to complete a marathon in under two hours. 

"Without my coaches and teammates, I would never have pushed human limits. With Kotcha, we wanted to share not just the training structure, but the full support system that made it possible."

Kipchoge and the NN Running Team directly contributed to Kotcha’s development. 

"Sharing our knowledge has always been our mission. Creating an app was the next step, but we needed the right partners,

 says Marleen Vink-Rennings, Marketing Director.

“Running is a team sport” is the philosophy that unites Kotcha’s founding team - Eliud Kipchoge, Ben Dupont (CEO), Michel-André Chirita (CTO), Dimitri Dor (CMO) and the NN Running Team - the belief that no one should run alone. The team combined elite running expertise with startup experience. The three tech founders worked with Kipchoge and his team, including time at his Kaptagat training camp, to embed his philosophy into the app.

"We didn’t want another training plan generator,"

"Magazines once offered generic plans, apps later digitized them with basic personalization. Kotcha, is the next generation of training experience: an AI-powered app you can talk to, recreating the relationship between an athlete and his coaching team. This coaching team is the first step in bringing our vision to life, that running is actually a team sport."

Validated with over 300 runners, Kotcha delivers a reliable, adaptive experience for athletes of all levels and ambitions.

Most running apps lock athletes into rigid 12 or 16 week plans. Kotcha recreates the feel of a real coaching team with four AI coaches - 

Head Coach, Nutritionist, Data Analyst and a Personal Trainer

"AI often lacks context and falls short of runners’ expectations,"

"We’re building Kotcha to understand each runner’s goals, training load and patterns, so guidance feels like it comes from a coach who truly knows you.”

That vision translates into very tangible features runners can use every day:

“Our objective is not to replace human coaches, but to make coaching more accessible and to help more people achieve their running goals"

In the coming weeks, the coach will be able to adapt training plans in real time, on demand. If a user only has 30 minutes because they’re working late or their child is sick, the coach will automatically adjust the day’s session and update the following ones to keep them on track toward their goal.

This pre-seed round will allow Kotcha to launch and bring its vision to life in Europe and internationally.

“We raised this round to bring our vision to life: enhancing physical, mental and social well-being through running.”

“Few activities shape both body and mind like running. Kotcha brings that experience into a new era, connecting technology, empathy, and precision in a way that feels genuinely human. It’s the youngest company we’ve ever backed, and one we chose to support from day one because its ambition resonates deeply with our values”

 said Margaux Bussière, Principal at Racine².

Kotcha is available from October 23rd on the App store, worldwide, in French and English, for runners training for races from 10k to marathon. The application has a free trial week and is offered at a launch price of $14.99 / month (€14.99 / month).

Kotcha is the next generation running app, redefining the sport as a team experience. Born from the collaboration of app experts Ben Dupont, Michel-André Chirita and Dimitri Dor with Eliud Kipchoge and the NN Running Team, Kotcha blends Kipchoge’s methods, human-like AI coaching and strong community bonds, so no runner ever runs alone. Website: 

About Eliud Kipchoge and the NNRunning Team

Founded in 2017 by Global Sports Communication and supported by NN Group, the NN Running Team is the world’s first professional running team, uniting many of the planet’s best long-distance athletes under one banner. The team provides its runners with world-class coaching, medical care, and performance support, while promoting values of teamwork, resilience, and excellence.

At the heart of the team is Eliud Kipchoge, the double olympic marathon champion (2016, 2021) and the only human ever to run a marathon in under two hours. Widely regarded as the greatest marathon runner in history, Kipchoge embodies the team’s spirit of discipline, humility, and belief that no human is limited. His leadership and philosophy continue to inspire a generation of athletes within the NN Running Team and beyond.

Racine² is an impact investment fund operated by makesense and Serena for MGEN. With €85 million, it supports innovative and ambitious companies that generate a positive impact on society and its environment. The fund focuses on 4 areas: physical activity and sports, sustainable lifestyles, education for all, and preservation of the environment and health.

French startup Kotcha, co-founded with marathon legend Eliud Kipchoge and the NN Running Team, has raised €3.5 million to make world-class coaching accessible to every runner. Using AI to recreate the athlete–coach relationship, Kotcha delivers adaptive, personalised guidance at scale.

Kotcha raises €3.5 million to make world-class coaching accessible to every runner

--Originally posted on Newswire, October 9, 2025--

Pinpoint, the AI-native social operating system that helps brands convert their social media audiences into customers, today announced the close of a $2.5 million funding round led by 

 (PCV). The funding will enable Pinpoint to expand its core team and accelerate platform development with new features and integrations shaped in collaboration with its growing customer base.

Pinpoint solves a critical pain point for brands and large-scale creators who spend significant resources building audiences on social platforms but struggle to translate that engagement into revenue. Many remain boxed in by outdated tools, fragmented funnels, and limited visibility into how social channels drive their business.

The company's AI-powered operating system allows brands to replicate SMS and email flows, capture audience data, and deliver customer support directly within Instagram and TikTok DMs, seamlessly integrating social media audiences into the broader marketing funnel without leaving the platform.

"We built Pinpoint to address the frustration of brand marketers who want to transform their social audiences into measurable growth," said Joshua Cohen, cofounder and CEO, Pinpoint. "By applying proven marketing principles to social media inboxes, we're enabling brands to create scalable, personalized shopping experiences that connect audience attention to real customer revenue."

Investors joining PCV in this round include 

 and strategic investors from Spotify, Raine Group, Google, and Twilio.

In addition, several early Pinpoint customers have validated the platform by becoming investors themselves, including Alex Febonio (

"At PCV, we invest in the technologies shaping how people play, move, compete, and connect. Across our portfolio, we've seen how challenging it is for brands to convert passionate social audiences into lasting customer relationships," said Adam Lewites, General Partner, PCV. "From our first interactions with the Pinpoint team, it was clear they deeply understood this problem and were executing with incredible speed. Their pace of innovation, product vision, and AI-first approach position them to redefine the future of social commerce."

Since launching its beta just five months ago, Pinpoint has been adopted by more than 100 brands representing a combined social following of over 500 million. Early customers are already seeing measurable impact, with some achieving up to a 30 percent lift in revenue after integrating Pinpoint's platform into their social channels.

"Pinpoint helps us build our brand by turning the community we've built into lifelong customers," said Avery Hairston, VP Marketing, 

. "They've nailed the ability for brands to build personalized 1:1 connections with each customer at scale."

We’re excited to announce our investment in Pinpoint, who’ve just raised a $2.5M Seed round to help brands convert social attention into measurable growth. 

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