Beta Boulders
Mälmo and Gothenburg, Sweden
Specs: Beta Boulders, a European gym chain, recently opened a bouldering gym in Malmö and is planning to open a facility in Gothenburg, marking the chain’s expansion to Sweden. Founded by Majority Owner and Managing Director Francesco Ragazzi, Beta Boulders opened its first location in Copenhagen in February, 2019, with the help of friends and ex-colleagues of Ragazzi, who own a smaller stake in the business. “We are not backed by any fund or bank,” Ragazzi explained. “We just reinvest the proceeds from the gyms into opening more gyms…Every gym we have opened has been paid for by the gyms that came before it.”
Before opening Beta Boulders, Ragazzi worked in private equity and began climbing “while working in finance because of back problems from sitting at my desk all day,” he said. He noticed “how the climbing industry was changing and how the existing gyms were fun to climb in and had a great community,” while seeing room for improvement in some respects, such as the atmosphere and air quality at some facilities he visited. “I did some math, toured a lot of gyms, quit my job in finance and started looking for space to open bouldering gyms across Europe,” Ragazzi continued.
His initial focus was on opening facilities across major European capitals, such as the 2019 gym in Copenhagen and 2020 opening in Amsterdam. “During COVID, we learned that multi-country operations are very hard,” said Ragazzi. “We pivoted our strategy to be more geographically focused and less stretched across several cities/countries. With the current strategy of opening “clusters of three to four gyms per city,” the group next opened two additional locations in Copenhagen.
The Beta Boulders team started working on expanding to Sweden in 2022, but Ragazzi said “it has taken a long time to clear all the local administrative hurdles to open the gym.” The Malmö gym was initially planned for 2024, but there have been several delays due to the nature of the building, which is a historical building and was the first-ever department store in the city in the 1960s, per Ragazzi. The gym eventually opened on August 18th and is the chain’s fifth location.
Beta Boulders sought out a city they hope will support several gyms and sites that fit their facility search criteria. Malmö checked both boxes, Ragazzi explained, and additionally has “good demographics, low competition, and [is] easier for us to manage geographically,” due to its proximity to Copenhagen, where most of the Beta Boulders management team resides. The building itself is located across the street from a main train station, in the middle of the shopping district. It is “easy to reach from anywhere in the city, with plenty of parking in the area,” Ragazzi said. Beta Boulders Malmö features over 200 boulders, a Kilter Board and a kids’ climbing wall, in addition to a fitness area, sauna, yoga room and coworking space.
Due to their strategy of opening in populated cities in Europe, where Ragazzi said it can be difficult to find a high ceiling height, the Beta Boulders team currently focuses on providing bouldering hubs. All facilities feature cafés, which offer light food, drinks and beers, which they make through a partnership with a local brewery in Denmark.
That approach holds true for the Gothenburg facility, which is expected to open in early 2027 and is being constructed in an existing building from the early 2000s. The Gothenburg gym is moving faster than the Malmö gym, Ragazzi shared, because the Beta Boulders team is now more familiar with navigating the Swedish system. Upon completion, the Gothenburg facility will feature 150 boulders, a Kilter Board and a kids’ climbing wall, in addition to a coworking space spanning two floors, a training area and a sauna. “We identified Gothenburg as another potential cluster city about the same time when we started looking at Malmö, back in 2022/2023,” Ragazzi said. “We think Gothenburg has very good demographics, limited competition, and is large enough to support a cluster.”
Expanding throughout Europe has been challenging for Beta Boulders, according to Ragazzi, but it has provided many learning opportunities. “You think you know everything, having operated in one country, but the moment you move across the border, most/all things will change,” said Ragazzi. “Every country (and sometimes every city) is unique. You need to learn new regulations, adapt to local customs, and have a smart management team that can switch between different ‘modes’ while dealing with problems.” He also said opening their second gym in a new country, rather than that of the first, slowed the team down and suggested “unless you have opened three to five gyms in the same geography, don’t bother adding complexity with a new country/state.”
Walls: Walltopia (Malmö); Undecided (Gothenburg)
Flooring: Flipp (Malmö); Undecided (Gothenburg)
CRM Software: Undisclosed
Website: betaboulders.se
Instagram: @BetaBoulders.Malmo
In Their Words: “Do your math, do your due diligence, and improve your operations. The main mistakes I see are people expanding too much/too early/too fast. There has been a lot of FOMO in the market for the last few years, and the result is more gyms closing in some overly saturated cities/markets…Sometimes the right decision is not to open the gym where six other facilities have opened in just a few years, unless you truly believe you have a better location/product.” – Francesco Ragazzi, Founder, Majority Owner and Managing Director at Beta Boulders
