Momence Funding Round: What It Means for Studio Owners
Momence’s major public company event was a January 2025 acquisition by Clubessential Holdings, followed by Xplor’s 2026 merger close. Here is what that means for studio owners evaluating Momence as studio management software.
Key Takeaways
- Most accurate label: Momence’s major public company event was a January 29, 2025 strategic acquisition by Clubessential Holdings, not a newly disclosed venture funding round, according to the official acquisition announcement.
- Ownership context: Momence is now part of Xplor Technologies’ broader software and embedded payments portfolio after Xplor announced the successful close of its merger with Clubessential Holdings on March 30, 2026, according to Xplor’s merger-close announcement.
- Studio owner impact: The acquisition may give Momence more resources for product development, payments, support operations, and AI features, but studio owners should verify current pricing, contract terms, data export rights, and support commitments before switching.
- Pricing check: As of May 2026, Momence’s public pricing section lists a Free Basic plan, a $60/month Pro plan, a $199/month Custom plan, and U.S. processing fees of 3.9% + $0.30 online card, 3.7% + $0.05 in-person card, and 1.8% ACH, as listed on the Momence website.
- Due diligence signal: Public reviews are mixed. Trustpilot shows a 4.1 TrustScore from 371 reviews, while Capterra review excerpts include both praise for usability and complaints about bugs, onboarding, and support, based on Trustpilot and Capterra.
Momence’s Big 2025 Event Was an Acquisition, Not a Traditional Funding Round
For US studio owners searching for a Momence funding round, the key event to understand is the January 29, 2025 acquisition of Momence by Clubessential Holdings. The announcement described Momence as a mobile-first, AI-powered platform for fitness studios and gyms and said the acquisition expanded Clubessential Holdings’ fitness software and embedded payments footprint.
The acquisition announcement said Momence supported more than 4,500 businesses and offered scheduling, payments, communications, marketing solutions, and backend automation. It also said Momence joined ClubReady, Exerp, and myFitApp inside Clubessential Holdings’ fitness vertical.
This matters because an acquisition usually has different implications than a funding round. A funding round typically gives an independent company new capital while it remains separate; an acquisition changes ownership and may affect product strategy, support structure, contract administration, payments infrastructure, and long-term roadmap.
Public startup databases do not present a single clean picture of Momence’s historical funding. Y Combinator lists Momence as a Summer 2020 company with acquired status, while third-party funding databases may list different historical funding totals or rounds. For buying decisions, studio owners should treat the acquisition and current product terms as more actionable than inconsistent third-party funding estimates.
The Xplor Merger Makes Momence Part of a Larger Payments and Software Platform
After the Momence acquisition, Clubessential Holdings announced a merger with Xplor Technologies in September 2025. Xplor later announced on March 30, 2026 that the merger had successfully closed, creating a unified global company under the Xplor brand.
According to Xplor, the combined company serves more than 130,000 businesses in 72 countries, processes more than $47 billion in annual payments, and generates approximately $900 million in annual revenue. Xplor also said it is making an eight-figure investment to expand native AI capabilities across its platforms, including an AI agent for Momence users.
For studio owners, this means Momence is no longer just a standalone studio software startup. It sits inside a larger organization focused on vertical software, embedded payments, and AI-powered workflows across fitness, recreation, golf, club, home services, laundry, education, and other service-based industries.
| Public fact | Source | Why it matters for studio owners |
|---|---|---|
| Momence was acquired by Clubessential Holdings on January 29, 2025. | Official acquisition announcement | Ownership changed, so studios should review contract, billing, support, and roadmap questions during evaluation. |
| Momence supported more than 4,500 businesses at the time of the acquisition announcement. | Clubessential Holdings announcement | Scale can indicate market traction, but it does not prove fit for every studio type. |
| Xplor and Clubessential Holdings closed their merger on March 30, 2026. | Xplor merger-close announcement | Momence now sits within a broader Xplor platform with larger payments and software infrastructure. |
| Xplor says an AI agent for Momence users is an early example of its AI investment. | Xplor merger-close announcement | Studios should ask which AI features are currently available, which are in rollout, and whether they affect pricing. |
Momence’s Current Product Positioning Focuses on Scheduling, Payments, Messaging, Marketing, and Automation
As of May 2026, the Momence website positions the platform for studios, gyms, spas, and dance schools. The site lists features including class and appointment scheduling, memberships and packs, AI Inbox, automations, point of sale, staff management, reporting, on-demand content, website plugins, integrations, kiosk and self check-in, lead collection, lead management, and mobile apps.
Momence’s studio-specific page lists scheduling, email and SMS marketing, on-demand video, courses, newsletters, mobile app options, point of sale, automations, reporting, staff accounts, payroll, CRM, memberships, packs, appointments, room rentals, and live event ticketing. That feature set is broadly relevant to boutique fitness, Pilates, yoga, dance, martial arts, gym, wellness, and sports academy operators that want one system for bookings, payments, communication, and member management.
However, feature availability can vary by plan, configuration, country, payment setup, and add-ons. Before assuming a feature is included, studios should ask Momence to confirm the exact plan, add-on costs, implementation timeline, payment processor requirements, and whether specific automations or AI capabilities are generally available or still being rolled out.
Pricing and Review Signals Require Careful Verification
As of May 2026, Momence’s public pricing section lists Basic at Free/month, Pro at $60/month, Custom at $199/month, and a separate “Get in touch” custom pricing option. The same page lists U.S. payment processing fees of 3.9% + $0.30 for online card payments, 3.7% + $0.05 for in-person card payments, and 1.8% for ACH payments.
Those public prices should be treated as a starting point, not a complete total cost of ownership. Studio owners should confirm whether their quote includes SMS, branded app, additional locations, staff accounts, retail POS, reporting, migrations, onboarding, payment hardware, chargeback fees, contract minimums, cancellation terms, and payment processing markups.
Review data is mixed and should be read for patterns rather than taken as a final verdict. Trustpilot shows Momence at 4.1 from 371 reviews, while Capterra’s Momence review page includes positive comments about communication visibility and usability alongside negative comments about payment glitches, embed limitations, onboarding, and support responsiveness.
G2’s Momence profile states that there are not enough reviews for G2 to provide buying insight, and it displays higher-volume alternatives on the same page. That does not mean Momence is unsuitable; it means buyers should combine public reviews with live demos, reference calls, a pilot workflow, and written contract review.
What Studio Owners Should Ask Before Choosing Momence After the Acquisition
An acquisition can be positive for customers when it brings stronger engineering capacity, better payments infrastructure, deeper support coverage, and a more durable product roadmap. It can also introduce uncertainty if pricing, packaging, support tiers, integrations, or product priorities change after the deal.
Studio owners should use the acquisition as a due diligence prompt. Ask specific questions and require written answers where possible, especially if your studio depends on recurring billing, class packs, waivers, payroll, SMS reminders, online booking, instructor permissions, or multi-location reporting.
- Pricing stability: Ask whether the quote is month-to-month or annual, whether rates can change during the term, and whether processing fees are locked or subject to change.
- Support model: Ask whether support includes live chat, email, phone, onboarding calls, migration support, weekend coverage, and escalation for payment or booking outages.
- Data portability: Ask how you can export clients, memberships, packages, waivers, attendance history, payment tokens, notes, and communications if you leave.
- Payments control: Ask which entity processes payments, how deposits are handled, how chargebacks work, and whether ACH, cards, card readers, and POS hardware are optional or required.
- Feature availability: Ask which AI, automation, reporting, lead management, branded app, SMS, and retail POS features are included in your quoted plan.
- Roadmap after acquisition: Ask whether any Momence features are being merged, retired, rebranded, or moved into Xplor’s broader product architecture.
What This Means for Studio Owners
Editorial analysis — not reported fact:
The practical takeaway is not that Momence is automatically safer or riskier because it was acquired. The more useful conclusion is that Momence now has a larger corporate parent, broader payments context, and public AI investment narrative, so buyers should evaluate both the platform and the post-acquisition operating model.
For a boutique fitness, Pilates, yoga, dance, martial arts, gym, or wellness studio, Momence may be worth evaluating if you want scheduling, payments, messaging, automations, lead management, and member experience tools in one platform. The product is especially relevant if your studio values direct client relationships rather than marketplace discovery as the main growth channel.
At the same time, do not rely on funding headlines or acquisition language alone. Run your actual workflows in the demo, including membership freezes, no-shows, waitlists, payroll, instructor substitutions, intro offers, retail checkout, refunds, late cancels, family accounts, waivers, reporting, and data exports.
The best buying decision is evidence-based. Compare the written quote, contract terms, implementation support, payment economics, and owner references against your current system and any other vendors you are considering.
Sources & Further Reading
- Momence joins Clubessential Holdings — Official January 29, 2025 acquisition announcement with company positioning, customer scale, and fitness vertical context.
- Xplor Technologies and Clubessential Holdings launch unified global company — March 30, 2026 announcement confirming the merger close and describing Xplor’s scale and AI investment.
- Xplor Technologies and Clubessential Holdings to merge — September 2025 merger announcement with terms context and company background.
- Momence website — Current public product positioning, feature descriptions, pricing tiers, and U.S. processing fees as of May 2026.
- Momence studio software page — Official studio-focused feature page covering scheduling, marketing, on-demand, courses, POS, reporting, staff accounts, CRM, memberships, and packs.
- Y Combinator Momence profile — YC company profile listing Momence as Summer 2020 and acquired.
- Capterra Momence reviews — Verified user review page with buyer comments on usability, support, payments, embeds, onboarding, and features.
- Trustpilot Momence reviews — Public customer review profile showing TrustScore and review count.
- G2 Momence profile — G2 profile noting limited review volume and showing alternative products with more reviews.
Editorial coverage based on publicly available sources. Studio Software Advice does not accept paid placement in rankings. Unless stated otherwise, Studio Software Advice has no commercial relationship with any software companies named in this article.