Business

The company that makes people bounce taking over South Africa

Kirsten Minnaar • 19 November 2025

Since its launch in 2015, BOUNCE has cemented itself as South Africa’s biggest trampoline company, and it still has big plans for the future.

During a road trip in the United States, two Australians, Ant Morell and Simon McNamara, saw kids bouncing off the walls in a room filled with trampolines, and they noticed a gap in the market for action-adventure offerings.

“We wanted to create a new offer, a place for freestyle playgrounds, adrenaline sports, and freeing spirits of all ages,” Morell told Dynamic Business.

At the time, YouTube was flooded with content featuring extreme sports. However, there was no similar offering available to the general public.

Inspired by children’s playgrounds and circus performers, Morell and McNamara decided to found BOUNCE, a space filled with airbags and trampolines where people of all ages could come to free jump.

The first location opened in Glen Iris, a suburb in Melbourne, Australia. By 2013, the Australian rollout started, and in 2014, the first international venue opened in Dubai.

It was here that Shaun Strydom, managing director of BounceInc Sub-Saharan Africa, was introduced to the concept and realised that he had to bring it to South Africa.

The following year, the first South African BOUNCE opened at Waterfall Lifestyle in Midrand, featuring more than 100 interconnected wall-to-wall trampolines.

“We are excited to be giving consumers access to experiences that go beyond traditional exercise and are appealing to the whole family,” BounceInc chief operating officer Nicolle Weir commented at the opening.

“We are excited about bringing the free-jumping revolution to South Africa, delivering an awesome experience based on the euphoric rush of flight.”

The concept quickly took off in South Africa, and two consecutive venues were opened in 2016, in Menlyn Maine and Fourways Mall.

The business grows

BOUNCE continued to expand throughout South Africa and now has five locations in South Africa. The company is set to open its newest venue at the East Point Shopping Centre in Ekurhuleni soon.

“We’ve seen the growing demand for active, healthy fun in the East Rand, and we’re so excited to bring the BOUNCE energy and our unique blend of fun, fitness, and freestyle to the area,” Weir said.

“This community is buzzing with young families, and our new venue combines everything people already love about BOUNCE with a few surprises that make it truly special.”

The East Point venue will introduce the all-new X-Park – a high-energy freestyle challenge course packed with innovative, never-before-seen elements exclusive to this location.

BOUNCE currently offers 10 different types of arenas/activities at its venues, which are suitable for various skill levels and age groups. These include:

Clip n Climb: Exclusive to BOUNCE Fourways, Clip n Climb offers a fun, safe, and accessible indoor rock climbing experience for all skill levels.
High Performance: Trampolines in this area enable greater bounce and height. The area is perfect for skills development and more advanced manoeuvres. BOUNCE’s safety policy sets a height restriction of 125cm.
High Ropes Course: This area allows thrillseekers to test their balance and flexibility with a challenge at every twist and turn, all whilst in the air.
X- Run: Combines features and challenges from the BOUNCE X-Park in a side-by-side format. It allows people to race against their mates, test themselves, or simply navigate the features with greater skill and flow each time they run the course.
X-Park: An adventure challenge course for adrenaline hunters. It combines obstacles and features that can be explored as standalone challenges, navigated as one circuit with different levels of difficulty.
Free Jump Arenа: An extensive network of interconnected floor and wall trampolines. This is BOUNCE’s main stage, because it has around 50 interconnected trampolines, tumble tracks, banked walls and jump boxes.
Slam Dunk: Full-height basketball rings are positioned above runway trampolines, surrounded by padded walls and floor mats.
Mini Bounce Zone: The miniBOUNCE zone offers a mix of fun, freestyle, and skill progression features, including a multi-level active play structure, slides, a ball pit, and a mini challenge course.
Big Bag: Provides a giant soft landing, allowing jumpers to achieve extremely high altitudes and practice their aerial moves safely. Lying at the end of rebound tumble tracks, the giant inflatable bag sits in a five-foot-deep pit.
Dodgeball: Two teams throw soft ‘bowling ball’ sized dodgeballs at each other as they jump around the court. This area is popular for parties, groups of friends or corporate outings to blow off some steam.

Bounce has won numerous awards throughout the year. In 2025, BOUNCE won the Best of Joburg’s Best Kids’ Party Spot for the fourth consecutive year.

It also won Best of Pretoria and Durban’s Best Kids Party Spot and Best Kids Play Centre award, and was named the Greatest Kids’ Party Area by 702 Gauteng.

A strategic partnership

Globally, BOUNCE welcomes around 4 million customers annually and has hosted over 100,000 kids’ birthday parties. The group has annual revenues of around $75 million.

Based on numbers over the last 9 years (not including 2020), the South African BOUNCE averages 600,000 visitors and 260,000 jumping hours every year.

Committed to tackling youth unemployment, the company currently employs around 280 staff members under age 25.

BOUNCE has no plans of slowing down, either. As part of its goal to keep expanding, the company has formed a strategic partnership with Nu Metro.

During a Nu Metro event held in July 2025, the company announced that it plans to create kid-friendly theatres with mini bounce areas to attract families.

At the time, this partnership was still in the design phase, but the companies stated that they plan to launch the concept in 2026 and are already eyeing national expansion.

With over 2 million South Africans going to the movies every month, according to Nu Metro, this will give BOUNCE access to a wider market.