Flex AI Shuts Down Amid Saturated Fitness Market
AI-generated image · Bay Street Wire
The Vancouver-based startup's collapse highlights the difficulty of scaling AI-driven wellness tools in a crowded sector.
Vancouver-based personal training app Flex AI is winding down operations after failing to secure an acquisition and exhausting its funding, BetaKit reports.
In a March 24 email to staff obtained by BetaKit, CEO and co-founder Amin Niri announced the shutdown, noting that some markets are "almost impossible to win in, economically." Niri acknowledged the difficulty of building a sustainable business within crowded categories. The startup, founded in 2018 by Niri and former COO Connor Gill, developed a patented AI system featuring real-time, on-device computer vision to provide exercise form feedback. By 2022, a job posting indicated the company had grown to nearly one million users.
While the broader health and fitness app market is expanding—generating $3.4 billion in annual revenue from 540 million users in 2025, according to the Business of Apps—the sector remains intensely competitive. A Fortune Business Insights study identified high market saturation and user retention as primary challenges for companies in this space. Flex AI faced competition from firms including Fitbod, FitnessAI, and GymStreak.
BC Business reported in 2020 that Flex AI had raised $2 million and employed 15 people by June of that year. Following the shutdown announcement, BetaKit spoke with contractors who claimed they were owed payments dating back to January. Niri later told BetaKit that he used personal family loans to resolve these outstanding obligations, admitting the wind-down process was handled poorly.