More activity. Less friction.
BetaPass exists to make it easier for people to be active — and easier for independent venues to welcome them in.
Our mission
Recreation should be something you do, not something you administrate. Yet somewhere between gym contracts, class apps, signing waivers in triplicate, and the embarrassment of "haven't been in four months but still paying" — the friction adds up. People stop training. Independent venues lose flexible customers.
BetaPass collapses that complexity into a single credit-based membership. One QR code at reception. One balance to top up. One account that follows you wherever you decide to train next.
By the numbers
What "beta" means
In climbing, the beta is the information you need to solve a route — the moves, the holds, the sequence that gets you to the top. Pass on the beta and you make the route possible for the next person. BetaPass takes that idea and runs with it: the pass that gives you the information, access and frictionless way in to whatever you want to do next.
Built for independents
We're not interested in being yet another aggregator for the big-chain gyms. BetaPass partners with independent operators — the climbing centre your friend opened, the studio above the bookshop, the BJJ club in the converted warehouse. The places worth visiting.
A Community Interest Company
BetaPass is structured as a UK Community Interest Company (CIC) — company, with special additional features, created for the use of people who want to conduct a business or other activity for community benefit, and not purely for private advantage.
Working with partners to widen access
BetaPass isn't only members and venues. A third group sits behind the scenes — Local Active Partners — and they're a deliberate part of why the platform exists.
Who they are
Councils, employers, health bodies, charities and community funders — organisations whose remit includes getting people active. They use BetaPass to put credit behind specific activities for specific audiences.
What they do
Each partner runs a scheme: who it's for, which activities it covers, how much of the credit cost they pick up. The partner sets the rules — BetaPass just runs the plumbing that matches eligible members to the right schemes.
How members see it
If your profile fits a scheme, you'll see the subsidised price on the Discover page and the discount applied automatically at the venue. No applications, no proving anything to reception, no awkwardness — if you qualify, you qualify.
We deliberately keep the partner mechanism low-key. Subsidised activity should feel like a normal part of the platform — not a separate, signposted "help" experience.
How we got here
The short version of the story.
The itch
Hello, my name is Brendan the founder of BetaPass, I climb regularly in Exeter. I'm almost part of the furniture there. I chat with people and enjoy the social aspect of exercising with others. Like many others I've spoken to, keeping memberships for all the different things we'd like to do, is just too expensive. I racked my brains and thought - "there has to be a better way." So I came up with this - BetaPass
The conversations
We talked to independent venue owners. They all said the same thing: flexible drop-in customers were valuable but hard to reach, and the admin of taking one-off payments at reception was a headache.
The build
A small team of engineers, local 'Active Partners', climbers and gym owners. A focus on doing a few things genuinely well rather than a sprawl of half-finished features. A platform that's quick at reception and honest with members.
Today
BetaPass is live, growing one independent venue at a time. We'd love you — or your local centre — to be next.
Get in touch
Whether you want to sign up as a member, partner your venue, or just ask a question — drop us a line. We're a small team and we answer our own email.