Reports of Strava planning an initial public offering (IPO) with intentions to float on the New York Stock Exchange, have this week been confirmed as more than just rumour.
The company's CEO, Michael Martin, told British news outlet, Financial Times, that the move would happen "at some point" as the company seeks "easy access to capital" in order to make "more and bigger acquisitions."
Martin joined Strava as CEO in December 2023, and in the time since, the company has already made multiple significant acquisitions, including cycling training app, The Breakaway, and London-based running coaching app, Runna.
Martin didn't confirm a more specific timeline for the move, nor any details of what those "bigger acquisitions" might be.
The announcement comes less than a month after Reuters reported that the company was making moves towards an IPO, and that large banks, including JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, had already been approached.
Alongside the news, Financial Times also reported a significant increase in Strava's user base during Martin's time in charge.
In a graph showing data sourced by Sensor Tower, it reports Strava as having close to 50 million Monthly Active Users, a growth of around 12 million since 2024, itself up by around 8 million against 2023.
This follows a steady period between 2021 and 2023 that came after a similarly explosive growth during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the same data, Garmin Connect has also seen steady growth over the same period, from 10 million Monthly Active Users in 2020 to over 25 million in 2025.
Notably, Strava recently also filed a two-pronged lawsuit against Garmin, demanding that it ceases selling almost all of its bike computer and smartwatch devices. This was in relation to patents Strava has long held in regard to heatmaps and segments, and took aim at features that have long existed in the Garmin Connect app.
The move prompted many to ask 'why now?' and Strava's Chief Product Officer, Matt Salazar, took to Reddit to offer context. He said, "On July 1st, Garmin announced new developer guidelines for all of its API partners, including Strava, that required the Garmin logo to be present on every single activity post, screen, graph, image, sharing card etc. We have until November 1st to comply, and if not, Garmin has threatened to cut off access to their API, stopping all Garmin activities from being uploaded to Strava."
Strava argued that this is 'blatant advertising' and that the data belongs to the user, rather than to Garmin or itself, and as such, users should be free to use it across multiple platforms, and free from advertising.
Notably, however, when Strava removed much of Trailforks' integration last year due to it not complying with Strava’s API demands, Strava saw the data as Strava’s, not the individual's.
Interestingly, separate from the Strava case, competitor tech brand Suunto has also filed suit against Garmin for infringing on a handful of its own patents.
