CEO cites difficulty creating a sustainable business in the crowded fitness tech category.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Vancouver-based personal training app Flex AI<\/a> is shutting down, BetaKit has learned. Flex AI co-founder and CEO Amin Niri informed employees and contractors that the AI-powered fitness tech startup was winding down operations in a March 24 email obtained by BetaKit.\u00a0<\/p>\n In that email, Niri indicated that his efforts to secure an acquisition had failed and Flex AI had run out of money. He also revealed plans to liquidate Flex AI\u2019s remaining assets and handle any payments the fitness technology startup still owed to workers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe built something genuinely innovative\u2014real-time, on-device computer vision for exercise form feedback.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cI know the suddenness of this is hard, and I don\u2019t take lightly what that means for each of you, or what you\u2019ve each given to this company,\u201d Niri wrote. He indicated that some markets \u201care almost impossible to win in, economically,\u201d and said he had learned \u201cabout the reality of startups and constraints of trying to create sustainable business in crowded categories.\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement shared with BetaKit over email, Niri said, \u201cFlex AI laid off its team and ended active operations in March 2026 after an extended effort to sell the company didn\u2019t go through, and its funding was exhausted. The app remains online during the wind-down.\u201d<\/p>\n The health and fitness app market is large and growing. According to the Business of Apps<\/a>, in 2025, 540 million people used them, collectively generating $3.4 billion in total annual revenue during this time, up nearly 25 percent year-over-year.\u00a0<\/p>\n This space is also intensely crowded. A recent Fortune Business Insights study<\/a> cited \u201chigh market saturation\u201d and user retention as \u201cmajor challenges\u201d for the thousands of companies building these types of apps.<\/p>\n Nearly 1 million users<\/p>\n Flex AI was founded in 2018 by Niri and former COO Connor Gill, who left in 2023. BetaKit reached out to Gill for comment but he did not respond by publication time.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Vancouver startup, which also had a presence in Toronto<\/a>, operates an iPhone and Apple Watch app, which its website says comes in free and paid versions with additional features, as \u201cyour AI personal trainer.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n A Product Hunt post<\/a> notes that Flex AI provides workout tracking capabilities, AI feedback to correct poor exercise form, and an AI persona to adapt users\u2019 fitness plans and answer questions regarding training, recovery, and nutrition.<\/p>\n According to a brief profile from BC Business in 2020<\/a>, which named Niri to its 30 Under 30 list, Flex AI had raised $2 million and grown to 15 employees by that June. A 2022 job posting<\/a> indicates that the company had grown to nearly one million users.\u00a0<\/p>\n Niri\u2019s most recent LinkedIn post, from six months ago<\/a>, hailed the launch of Flex AI 3.0, which he said included the startup\u2019s patented AI.<\/p>\n RELATED: <\/strong>AI could democratize access to expert coaching, sports tech entrepreneurs say<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n In the email to staff announcing Flex AI was winding down, Niri wrote, \u201cWe built something genuinely innovative\u2014real-time, on-device computer vision for exercise form feedback, as well as a workout companion that tens of thousands of people use monthly.\u201d<\/p>\n Flex AI\u2019s competitors include San Francisco-based Fitbod, New York\u2019s FitnessAI, and United Kingdom-based GymStreak.<\/p>\n Niri did not comment to BetaKit on Flex AI\u2019s funding history or financial performance, or share the number of staff and users the startup had prior to initiating this shutdown.<\/p>\n At time of publication, Flex AI\u2019s website<\/a> and mobile application both appear to remain fully functional. A BC corporation search still lists the company as active<\/a>.<\/p>\n Winding down<\/p>\n While reporting this story, BetaKit spoke with multiple contractors who said they were owed money by Flex AI for work dating back as early as January, and were frustrated at the startup\u2019s lack of payment and communication. After BetaKit reached out to Niri for comment about this situation, the contractors whom BetaKit spoke with were promptly contacted and repaid.<\/p>\n \u201cThe wind-down was handled worse than it should have been, and resolving these obligations directly, which is now done for each of them, has been my focus,\u201d Niri told BetaKit.<\/p>\n Niri said he has drawn on personal family loans where Flex AI lacks funds to resolve its outstanding obligations.<\/p>\n \u201cWinding down a company I spent seven years building, and doing right by the people who built it with me, has been the hardest thing I\u2019ve done professionally,\u201d Niri said.<\/p>\n Feature image courtesy Unsplash<\/a>. Photo by Victor Freitas<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CEO cites difficulty creating a sustainable business in the crowded fitness tech category.
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