This is Walk15, a Lithuanian application made for your mobile phone that keeps count of your steps, no matter where you go. Without making use of your actual location, Walk15 just collects data from your phone's health app to count your progress, offering you points that you can use at different stores, while also engaging you in local walking challenges.

To find out more about how walking could become a primary way of getting around the city, while gathering nice benefits, we talked to Vlada Musvydaite-Vilčiauskė, founder and CEO of the Walk15 app.

Born in Ukraine from a Ukrainian mother who is a 100 meters champion and a Lithuanian father who is an 800 meters champion, Vlada was introduced to sports from a very early age. Throughout her life, she tried over 150 sports and later decided to study journalism and was a sports presenter for 10 years.

Now, she's on a mission to help people live a healthier life, by encouraging them to walk with their families and friends.

The first step for a health-focused rewarding app

It all began in 2019, when Vlada founded the Walk15 app, out of an earlier need to find interesting walking routes to spend time with her children. In order to help other parents and users find easy to walk routes, she and her team created Walk15 and started to organize walking challenges and a walking competition, as well, which Vlada told us is the largest mass event in Lithuania.

Back in February, the healthy lifestyle startup attracted a 1 million euros investment, following an initial 500.000 euros round three months earlier. Officials of the Walk15 app, which unites more than 640,000 users and 1,300 businesses and organizations worldwide, said that the funding will be allocated for the expansion into the German market, as the startup opened the doors of a new office in Berlin.

The Walk15 team actively engages employees and clients of companies, along with community members and educational institutions, in sustainable mobility activities across markets including Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Denmark, Romania and Germany. Over 10.000 step challenges have been created over the past four years to help users stay consistently on the move.

Vlada Musvydaite-Vilčiauskė, founder and CEO of Walk15 said at the time that "we are growing very fast - this is evidenced by our client geography, the attention of international investors, and our portfolio of competencies. On a global scale, we address the problem of decreasing physical activity in society and the resulting personal health and healthcare system issues at the national level."

When it comes to the sustainable vision of a green city, Vlada told Green Start-Up that the Walk15 team embraced alternative transport when commuting, which further reinforces the company's mission.

"I like sustainability very much, but I also very much like the fact that a lot of our employees do not have cars. They go to the office by bicycle or by foot."

How does Walk15 work

As Vlada explained, for regular consumers, the app is free of charge, meaning that you can download it to your iPhone or Android smartphone from the corresponding app stores for free.

Companies that want to offer their employees an incentive to walk and involve them in the step challenges, as well as to support Walk15, can get a subscription, which can include custom walking challenges for the team, among other things. This subscription, Vlada explained, costs 6 euros per person and can be renewed monthly or annually.

"You should choose from which steps provider you want to show your steps count. For example, if you are a Samsung user, you show the information from Samsung health, if you use an Apple product, you pick Apple health."

This means that there should be no privacy or security concerns for the end user, who just gets to enjoy the benefits of walking around town and further. By engaging in walking challenges, users can join groups that have similar interests, such as certain sports, which can enable them to connect with others, if they so choose.

Furthermore, the Walk15 team plans to expand beyond just walking, as bicycle challenges will also be made available for users and those will be tracked in a similar way, from the phone's health application, which can assess the cycling progress using the device's sensors.

The Tracks feature, which can be used for free, opens up walkable routes to the users, which they can pick in order to walk around the city and explore interesting attractions. An audio guide will explain these attractions as users walk by them, offering an innovative and alternative approach to traditional bus city tours.

One important functionality of the Walk15 app is the Step Wallet, which essentially enables users to collect points as they walk and use them at partner stores, one of the most important being PENNY.

For example, Vlada showcased that by spending 20.000 steps from the Step Wallet, users can get a 20% discount in the form of a scannable barcode when buying certain products, such as fruits and vegetables, meaning that Walk15 helps promoting a healthy lifestyle beyond just physical activity. So, for two days-worth of walking, you can get a nice discount on a healthy meal or snack.

The more partners join the effort, the more benefits and opportunities will arise for customers, who can potentially make use of other sustainable alternatives, such as buying cheaper train tickets or getting discounts on ridesharing platforms.

Collaborating with medical institutions

Doctors affirm that regular walks can serve as prevention for 40 different diseases, improve emotional well-being, mood, and productivity, according to Walk15. Since doctors recommend walking as a way of exercising and the Walk15 app offers a nice set of benefits, the team started collaborating with Lithuanian medical institutions to literally prescribe step challenges for patients.

4, 8, or 10 thousand steps per day - these are three prescriptions that family doctors at Šeškinė Polyclinic in Vilnius can now prescribe to patients. With a step prescription, the patient is directed not to a pharmacy, but to the free mobile walking app.

Vlada explains that "the app becomes like a pharmacy for steps. After receiving the prescription, the patient scans the QR code on their phone and sees a step program personalized for them. The challenge is to walk for three months at the activity level recommended by the doctor."

Miglė Budrienė, coordinator of this project at Šeškinė Polyclinic, added that "it has been proven that low physical activity is a risk factor for the development of chronic non-communicable diseases. Data from various studies conducted in Lithuania indicate low levels of physical activity among adults, but encouraging them to be physically active is difficult without appropriate and easily applicable monitoring and self-monitoring tools. The step prescription offered to our patients is precisely that. An app that not only encourages people to walk but also ensures personalized care and consultations from doctors."

The pilot project at Šeškinė Polyclinic has already begun. The target audience for the project is young people aged 12-29 and individuals aged 30-65 with chronic diseases (type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obesity).

In the first stage, step prescriptions will be issued by four family doctors at Šeškinė Polyclinic. If the pilot project is successful, the program of personalized step prescriptions will be expanded.

The Romanian community and plans for the future.

Last year, Walk15 made around 600.000 euros in terms of revenue and so far, in the first quarter of this year, the company made 200.000 euros, Vlada shared with Green Start-Up, as she looks to further investments that could enable the expansion to new markets, such as the US.

By the end of 2024, Walk15 aims to attract one million users, as well as 250 B2B customers in Germany, the most recent market where the app expanded into.

In Romania, there are currently close to 30.000 users of the Walk15 app, making the country the third most important market, after Lithuania and Latvia. Denmark and Germany are the two other nations that make up the top five markets for the Walk15 team.

This year, Vlada shared with us that Walk15 will expand the National Mobility Challenge in Romania for the European Mobility Week, planning to attract at least 100.000 participants. "The idea is very simple – you join the challenge by choosing one of the 41 counties plus Bucharest of Romania and walk. It is a great competition of sustainable mobility between counties and citizens of the counties", the founder and CEO of the company told us.