All about Clovo
Australian software connecting boutique fitness studios with the people who move with them.
What is Clovo?
Clovo is an Australian booking and payments platform for boutique fitness businesses, including Pilates, yoga and group fitness studios.
Studios use Clovo to run their business, while their clients use it to book classes, purchase memberships and manage their attendance.
The platform brings schedules, bookings, payments, memberships, cancellations and waitlists together, alongside studio-branded booking experiences.
Born in a Logan Pilates Studio
Clovo started when a friend opened a Pilates studio in Logan, Queensland. The studio was paying too much for booking software while using only a small part of the features provided. Platforms built for large gym chains were overservicing boutique studios, leaving owners with software that felt clunky and hard to manage at their size.
Clovo was built and battle-tested in that same studio, with the owner allowing the founder to use the business as a beta-testing ground. The studio’s day-to-day experience helped shape a platform made for independent studio owners, and that practical foundation still guides Clovo today.
The problem
When somebody decided to open a small fitness studio in Australia, they knew they needed a platform to give their clients booking apps and to give themselves scheduling and payment capabilities. This would lead many boutique-sized Australian fitness studios into the sales funnels of one of the incumbent booking platforms that are great for huge gym chains, but clunky and overpriced for boutique-sized businesses.
In addition to high fees, many of these platforms had terms that weren't friendly to the boutique sector: contracts with minimum terms and early exit penalties, and additional add-on fees for functionality they did actually need. These fees are often significant and lock the studio into years of paying for a system suited to a large gym franchise, when all they wanted was a way for their clients to book into their small studio.
How Clovo solved it
Clovo was built from the ground up around boutique studios. It combines everyday studio administration with a branded booking and payment experience for clients, helping owners spend less time managing separate systems.
Studios can manage recurring memberships, class packs, cancellations and waitlists in one place. Local support and Australian infrastructure keep the service close to the businesses it serves.
Focused by design
- Booking apps
- Recurring memberships
- Credit packs
- Contracts
- Scheduling
- Growth tools
- Retention
- Landing pages
Everything boutique studios need. Nothing they don’t.
Only large gym chains need
- Cash register integration
- Security system integration
- Payroll
- Enterprise features
- Franchise features
- 24/7 gym entry
- Enterprise CRM and sales pipelines
Unique business model
Clovo was being built as Australia emerged from COVID-19 restrictions, after many fitness business owners had seen their businesses grind to a halt overnight. That experience shaped a different approach to pricing. We wanted studios to pay for their software in the same way they already paid transaction fees: only when they made sales.
This led to a simple model: Clovo charges 1% of the sales a studio collects through the platform, capped at $1,100 + GST each year. A studio’s Clovo cost automatically scales down during slower periods, without the owner having to ask a traditional software vendor for a payment break. Once the annual cap is reached, there are no further Clovo platform fees for the rest of that year.
There are no setup fees, monthly subscriptions, per-user charges or paid feature add-ons from Clovo. Every studio gets the complete platform under the same straightforward model. Standard Stripe payment processing fees apply separately.
The technology behind Clovo
Modern PHP and AWS
Clovo is built on a modern PHP stack, backed by Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure in the Sydney region, because we believe modern PHP is the best foundation for the platform. It is mature, adaptable and gives us the confidence to build thoughtfully, maintain our software well and keep improving the service studios rely on. Our software engineering takes place in Australia.
Native mobile apps
From the beginning, we have invested in maintaining separate native implementations of the Clovo app for iOS and Android. Part of our role is to give every studio the best possible expression of its brand, and native mobile gives us a real edge: clients get the snappy, familiar interfaces they expect on their device, while each studio’s branding stays front and centre.
We supported Apple’s Liquid Glass at release and keep our app binaries small, so a new client can download the app in moments when a studio owner asks them to get started. This investment takes more time and care from our team, but the value native apps provide to our studios makes it worthwhile.
Made in Australia
Clovo is made in Australia, not simply sold here. All of our software engineering and customer support take place in Australia, keeping the people who build and support the platform close to the studios that use it.
Our team understands the local business environment and works in Australian time zones, so studio owners can get help from people here when they need it. Clovo is based in Springwood, Queensland, and runs on Australian infrastructure in Sydney.
Software as a Service
Clovo is Software as a Service (SaaS): software delivered as an ongoing online service. Studios access the platform over the internet, while Clovo looks after hosting, maintenance and improvements.
That means studio owners can use Clovo to manage their business without running their own servers or maintaining the software themselves. The service continues to evolve, with studio feedback helping shape what comes next.
Business to Business to Consumer (B2B2C)
Clovo serves fitness studios and, through them, the people who attend their classes. This makes Clovo a business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) platform. Studios are our customers, but their clients are often the people who interact with our products most frequently.
We take that responsibility seriously. Every booking, payment and membership interaction is part of a client’s experience of their studio. Our role is to make those everyday moments feel simple, familiar and considered, while keeping the studio’s own brand front and centre.
As our company principles put it, our customer’s customer is our priority. We work behind the scenes to help studios look after their clients and put their best foot forward. We shine when the studio shines.
Clovo at a glance
- Founded
- 2023
- Founder
- Tobias Gundry
- First studio onboard
- April 2024
- Pricing
- 1% of sales processed through Clovo, capped at $1,100 + GST per year
- What makes it different
- Purpose-built for boutique studios, combining the essential tools they need with usage-based pricing and Australian engineering and support
- Headline features
- Class scheduling and bookings, payments, recurring memberships, contracts, credit packs, waitlists, staff management, branded booking apps, landing pages, retention and growth tools
- Platform components
- Client Apps, Management Dashboard, Landing Pages, Integrated Staff App, Website Add-ons, Clovo Kiosk, Member Shop, Retention, Client Records and Growth
- Based in
- Springwood, Queensland, Australia
- Media contact
- hello@clovo.au