Success Stories

Victoria Repa: From a Ukrainian Village to 150 Million BetterMe Downloads

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Redaction 18 octobre 2026
Victoria Repa: From a Ukrainian Village to 150 Million BetterMe Downloads

Victoria Repa is the founder and CEO of BetterMe, the wellness technology company behind the BetterMe: Health Coaching and BetterMe: Mental Health apps. After growing up in a farming family in Ukraine's Donetsk region, she built a platform with more than 150 million downloads worldwide — raising just one $5 million round of venture capital along the way. This is her story, and the operating playbook behind it.

Table of Contents

From a Ukrainian Village to a Tech Career

Victoria Repa's entrepreneurial instincts were forged in Novobakhmutivka, a small village in the Donetsk region where she grew up in a farming family. Her school was so small that she had only 12 classmates, and classes ran for just 20 minutes, so learning anything new meant teaching herself from whatever books she could find.

Her reward for years of self-study was a grant to attend the best economics school in the country. But the corporate career that followed disappointed her: she took a logistics role at a large FMCG corporation and quit within a year and a half, convinced that moving boxes faster and cheaper was not her life's work. Looking for something meaningful, she signed up for a bootcamp-style product management school organized by the Ukrainian tech and media company Genesis, despite having no digital background. Genesis saw the same potential she did and offered her first tech job.

Two people she met there would shape the rest of her career. Vladimir Mnogoletniy, then CEO of Genesis, encouraged her to switch industries and later backed her founding a company. Vitaly Laptenok, her future co-founder and Chief Product Officer, became the technical counterpart to her commercial drive. Repa has also studied with the Stanford Executive Program and the Apple Entrepreneur Camp, both of which she credits with teaching her to adapt and pivot quickly.

Spotting the Fitness App Opportunity

Victoria Repa spotted the BetterMe opportunity by combining personal experience with market research, not by chasing a trend. While working at Genesis, she and Laptenok watched demand for high-quality health and fitness content surge, and they verified it with data before writing a line of code.

Their research found that more than 90 million American adults and 13 million children were living with obesity in 2016, according to a report by the Trust for America's Health cited in Repa's interviews. At the same time, the search query "how to lose weight" ranked fourth across the entire how-to category on Google, and the fitness app market had grown from virtually nothing to more than $500 million in just a few years. The conclusion was obvious: a large slice of the fitness industry was ready to move to mobile.

Repa's own life made her the perfect test case. She had struggled with weight and self-esteem as a teenager, and only transformed her health in her twenties — eventually becoming a certified health coach — when she embraced a new mindset. Her conclusion, now the core of BetterMe's product philosophy, is that enduring change needs a comprehensive approach: "Quick fixes, like fad diets, fall short in securing lasting results. Holistic solutions for a healthier and more fulfilling life are at the core of BetterMe."

From 80,000 Downloads to a Global Platform

BetterMe grew from an audience-first experiment into a global company: the founders monetized the opportunity in the fall of 2016 by publishing health and fitness content and collecting early signups before any product existed.

That first app, BetterMe: Weight Loss Workouts, was downloaded more than 80,000 times in two months with no advertising spend at all. The company was formally founded in 2017 in Kyiv, reached 10 million downloads within its first year, and Repa took the CEO seat at just 24 years old. By 2018 the app had been renamed BetterMe, and later BetterMe: Health Coaching, and the company was named to the App Annie list of the Top-30 EMEA-headquartered mobile publishers by revenue in March 2020.

Funding was the hardest part. Raising venture capital as a female founder in Ukraine meant fighting war, economic instability and gender bias at once. Repa persevered and raised $5 million from Genesis, with Horizon Capital's Ukraine Fund also investing — and she has not needed to raise again since. Today BetterMe reports more than 150 million downloads, around 10 million active users, availability in about 20 languages, and the United States accounting for roughly 60% of its market.

An Ecosystem, Not Just an App

BetterMe stands out in the health and fitness market because it refuses to stay in one vertical. While most competitors specialize in meditation, running or yoga alone, Repa built an all-in-one brand: since 2016 the company has released around 10 mobile apps across fitness, nutrition and mental wellness categories.

The ecosystem now has several pillars. BetterMe: Health Coaching offers more than 4,000 workouts, personalized meal plans, calorie and water tracking and one-on-one coaching, including programs for pregnant women, older adults, wheelchair users and people with limb loss. BetterMe: Mental Health grew out of the 2018 launch of BetterMe: Meditation & Sleep and adds breathing exercises, sleep stories and self-help courses. In 2022 and 2023 the company extended beyond the screen with the BetterMe Store sportswear line, the BetterMe Band activity tracker and a "bio-individual" coaching model combining digital tools, human coaches and wearable data — an approach Repa says doubles weight loss compared with self-guided efforts.

The audience reflects the mission. About 80% of BetterMe's users are women, and the balance continues inside the company: women hold 50% of leadership positions and make up 40% of the tech team, a balance Repa says happened organically rather than through quotas. For more founder journeys, see our profiles of Kristy Kim of TomoCredit and Natalia Bishop.

A Wartime CEO: Leading Through War

Victoria Repa became a wartime CEO on 24 February 2022, when Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine destroyed the village where her parents had lived — they were forced to flee Novobakhmutivka after a massive bombardment. BetterMe responded by turning its products into public infrastructure for a country in crisis.

Since the invasion began, BetterMe has provided free access to both of its apps to Ukrainians. Its Mental Health app has helped more than 350,000 Ukrainians cope with the psychological consequences of the war, and the company has attracted roughly 2 million Ukrainian users overall. Working with the World Health Organization in Ukraine, First Lady Olena Zelenska and the NGO Barrier Free, BetterMe co-developed a digital self-help tool called "Doing What Matters in Times of Stress," and in March 2022 it added a children's psychological assistance section to its app with UNICEF Ukraine.

The commitment is also financial. BetterMe launched two charity activewear collections with 100% of proceeds going to prosthetics for wounded soldiers and to the NGO Zemliachky – Ukrainian Front, and donated $15,000 to United24 for an ambulance. In 2023, with Esper Bionics and Future For Ukraine, it built Limb Loss Workouts — around 200 targeted training sessions to help amputees regain functionality and prepare for prosthetics. Despite all of this, the company grew its financial performance and headcount by 20% in 2022.

Recognition and Awards

Victoria Repa's work has been recognized by both the tech industry and the wellness sector, culminating in a run of international awards between 2020 and 2025.

She was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list in Technology in 2020 and joined the World Economic Forum's Tech Founders panel at Davos the same year. BetterMe: Mental Health won the People's Choice award at The Webby Awards 2024 in the Health & Wellness & Fitness Apps category, selected from around 13,000 entries from more than 70 countries, and the company received a Highly Commended award in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at the Reuters Sustainability Awards 2024.

In 2025 the recognition continued: BetterMe received an Anthem Award in the health category, a Lovie Award, and was a finalist at the Reuters Events Global Sustainability Awards. Its Pause for Life programme with Paddle WA in Western Australia won the Sport Initiative of the Year award at the SportWest WA Sport Awards.

Leadership Lessons from Victoria Repa

Three principles explain most of Victoria Repa's results, and all three are available to any founder: move before you are ready, learn by doing, and treat failure as data.

Her mantras are blunt. "Fail fast and cheap," "test along the way," and "speed is everything" guide how BetterMe launches products; she argues that lacking experience is acceptable as long as mistakes are made quickly and inexpensively. Her personal summary is "more doing, less talking": if an idea arrives, she acts on it immediately, however small the first step, because "debates and discussions will come later — doing is what drives progress." She also practices "thinking with her hands," sketching or writing a problem out before moving to digital tools.

On teams, she deliberately avoids the family metaphor: viewing a team as a sports team rather than a family creates discipline and accountability, and each player should focus on the part of the field they control. She also treats a leader's energy as a business asset, since a leader's energy shapes the whole company's mood. Those lessons became a product: in September 2025, BetterMe launched BetterMe Business, a corporate wellness program for employees, after a year-long pilot with the HR team of ZONE3000 in which 87% of participants said the program fostered a healthier company culture.

What's Next for BetterMe

BetterMe's next chapter is about extending from consumer apps into workplace wellness and AI-assisted coaching, at a moment when the market has never been larger.

The timing is deliberate. The global wellness economy reached $6.3 trillion in 2023 and is forecast to hit $9 trillion by 2028, according to the Global Wellness Institute. Into that market, BetterMe launched BetterMe Business globally in September 2025: an employee wellness program with more than 4,000 workouts, guided meditations and personalized meal plans in over 30 languages, with Zoom integration, one-on-one coaching sessions and an HR workspace with analytics.

Longer term, Repa has spoken about turning BetterMe's years of accumulated content into a digital health assistant able to handle calories, water intake, meal planning, workouts and recovery in one place. In November 2025 she also launched START & SCALE, a course packaging the system she used to grow from an idea into a 500-person international company. Her stated goal has not changed since the beginning: to make a healthy lifestyle accessible to everyone who wants to change, whatever their age, weight, income or physical ability.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Victoria Repa?

Victoria Repa is a Ukrainian entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of BetterMe, a wellness technology company she started in 2017. She grew up in a farming family in the Donetsk region, worked in FMCG logistics, then moved into tech through a Genesis bootcamp. She was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list in Technology in 2020.

What is BetterMe and how big is it?

BetterMe is an ecosystem of health and fitness apps whose flagship products are BetterMe: Health Coaching and BetterMe: Mental Health. The company reports more than 150 million downloads worldwide, around 10 million active users, availability in roughly 20 languages, and a team of more than 500 people. About 80% of users are women, and the United States is its largest market.

How did Victoria Repa start BetterMe?

She and co-founder Vitaly Laptenok, both working at Genesis, researched the rising demand for health and fitness content and began publishing content to collect signups in the fall of 2016, before any product existed. Their first app, BetterMe: Weight Loss Workouts, passed 80,000 downloads in two months with no advertising, and the company was founded in Kyiv in 2017. BetterMe raised $5 million from Genesis, with Horizon Capital's Ukraine Fund participating, and has not raised since.

How did BetterMe respond to the war in Ukraine?

BetterMe gave free access to both of its apps to Ukrainians after the full-scale invasion of February 2022. Its Mental Health app has assisted more than 350,000 Ukrainians with the psychological consequences of the war, and the company co-developed the "Doing What Matters in Times of Stress" self-help tool with the WHO in Ukraine, First Lady Olena Zelenska and the NGO Barrier Free. It also raised money for prosthetics and an ambulance, and built Limb Loss Workouts with Esper Bionics and Future for Ukraine.

What awards has Victoria Repa and BetterMe won?

Victoria Repa was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe 2020 Technology list and joined the World Economic Forum's Tech Founders panel at Davos in 2020. BetterMe: Mental Health won the People's Choice award at The Webby Awards 2024 in Health & Wellness & Fitness Apps, and the company received a Highly Commended award at the Reuters Sustainability Awards 2024. In 2025 it won an Anthem Award in the health category and a Lovie Award.

What is BetterMe Business?

BetterMe Business is the company's corporate wellness program, launched globally in September 2025. It gives employees access to more than 4,000 workouts, guided meditations and personalized meal plans in over 30 languages, with Zoom integration, one-on-one coaching and an HR analytics workspace. In a year-long pilot with ZONE3000's HR team, 87% of participants said the program helped build a healthier company culture.

Conclusion

Victoria Repa's path — from a 12-classroom village school in Donetsk to a 150-million-download wellness ecosystem — is proof that distribution and resilience can matter more than credentials or capital. She found a real problem, validated it with data before building, moved faster than better-funded competitors, and then led the company through a war without losing growth. For women building businesses in difficult markets, her playbook is unusually practical: start before you feel ready, serve the audience you once belonged to, and keep going when the conditions are worst. You can find more founder journeys like this one in our success stories section.

Sources

Victoria Repa BetterMe
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