Personal training app Flex AI is shutting down

Vancouver-based personal training app Flex AI is shutting down after failing to secure an acquisition and exhausting its funding, co-founder and CEO Amin Niri told employees in a March 24 email. The AI-powered fitness tech startup, which had nearly one million users and raised $2 million by June 2020, is winding down operations and liquidating assets, with the app remaining online during the process.

Vancouver-based personal training app Flex AI https://flexfitnessapp.com 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. 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’s remaining assets and handle any payments the fitness technology startup still owed to workers. “We built something genuinely innovative—real-time, on-device computer vision for exercise form feedback.” “I know the suddenness of this is hard, and I don’t take lightly what that means for each of you, or what you’ve each given to this company,” Niri wrote. He indicated that some markets “are almost impossible to win in, economically,” and said he had learned “about the reality of startups and constraints of trying to create sustainable business in crowded categories.” In a statement shared with BetaKit over email, Niri said, “Flex AI laid off its team and ended active operations in March 2026 after an extended effort to sell the company didn’t go through, and its funding was exhausted. The app remains online during the wind-down.” The health and fitness app market is large and growing. According to the Business of Apps https://www.businessofapps.com/data/fitness-app-market/ , 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. This space is also intensely crowded. A recent Fortune Business Insights study https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/fitness-app-market-116380 cited “high market saturation” and user retention as “major challenges” for the thousands of companies building these types of apps. Nearly 1 million users 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. The Vancouver startup, which also had a presence in Toronto https://flexfitnessapp.com/about-us/ , operates an iPhone and Apple Watch app, which its website says comes in free and paid versions with additional features, as “your AI personal trainer.” A Product Hunt post https://www.producthunt.com/products/flex-ai-your-ai-personal-trainer notes that Flex AI provides workout tracking capabilities, AI feedback to correct poor exercise form, and an AI persona to adapt users’ fitness plans and answer questions regarding training, recovery, and nutrition. According to a brief profile from BC Business in 2020 https://bcbusiness.ca/business/tech-science/30-under-30-amin-niri-is-developing-a-fitness-trainer-that-fits-into-your-pocket/ , 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 https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3959330224/ indicates that the company had grown to nearly one million users. Niri’s most recent LinkedIn post, from six months ago https://www.linkedin.com/posts/amin-niri 6ixbuzz-tv-6-on-instagram-this-is-perfect-share-7411300462462959616-U2vQ/?utm source=share&utm medium=member desktop&rcm=ACoAACjWmq0BU70H nfpSCfKZojFuu-sMAMaemU , hailed the launch of Flex AI 3.0, which he said included the startup’s patented AI. RELATED: AI could democratize access to expert coaching, sports tech entrepreneurs say In the email to staff announcing Flex AI was winding down, Niri wrote, “We built something genuinely innovative—real-time, on-device computer vision for exercise form feedback, as well as a workout companion that tens of thousands of people use monthly.” Flex AI’s competitors include San Francisco-based Fitbod, New York’s FitnessAI, and United Kingdom-based GymStreak. Niri did not comment to BetaKit on Flex AI’s funding history or financial performance, or share the number of staff and users the startup had prior to initiating this shutdown. At time of publication, Flex AI’s website https://flexfitnessapp.com and mobile application both appear to remain fully functional. A BC corporation search still lists the company as active https://www.orgbook.gov.bc.ca/entity/BC1161474/type/registration.registries.ca . Winding down 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’s 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. “The 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,” Niri told BetaKit . Niri said he has drawn on personal family loans where Flex AI lacks funds to resolve its outstanding obligations. “Winding 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’ve done professionally,” Niri said. Feature image courtesy Unsplash. Photo by Victor Freitas.