Kiwi born fitness app hits the big time overseas, but not at home

A Kiwi fitness app created in Tauranga has built up a following of 30,000 users in the UK and US markets and has also just won a major award.

My Virtual Mission has received a top 25 honourable mention in the 2016 'Best powered by Strava' apps list. But somehow, it hasn't yet hit big in the NZ market which director and founder Adam El-Agez says is a bit puzzling.

"We're taking the world by storm but in our own back yard hardly anyone knows us as a Kiwi brand," he says.

My Virtual Mission is a goal-setting fitness app which give individuals or groups the ability to set up long distance missions between two points on a map. They can then work towards completing the challenge with each run, ride, walk or swim that a person completes.

Every kilometre that they exercise takes them closer to achieving their personal or team goal.

"We wanted to build an app that gives users a goal to work towards. Working out can be dull and boring but having something that challenges can also be encouraging," says El-Agez.

"It's great to know we're helping people reach their health and fitness objectives through our technology".

Strava's endorsements of My Virtual Mission is a major boost to the Tauranga company.

The connection between the two platforms enables Strava users to automatically send their distances to their mission which eliminates the need to manually log distances.

My Virtual Mission also connects with other popular fitness apps including Fitbit and Runkeeper.