Vancouver-based Flex AI is winding down after a failed sale and exhausted funding, leaving contractors unpaid before the CEO resolved obligations.
Alpha Score of 64 reflects moderate overall profile with strong momentum, weak value, strong quality, moderate sentiment.
Vancouver-based personal training app Flex AI is shutting down after a failed acquisition and exhausted funding, BetaKit reported. Co-founder and CEO Amin Niri told employees in a March 24 email that efforts to sell the company had fallen through and the startup had run out of money. He planned to liquidate remaining assets and handle outstanding payments to workers.
“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 said some markets “are almost impossible to win in, economically,” and that he had learned “about the reality of startups and constraints of trying to create sustainable business in crowded categories.”
Flex AI was founded in 2018 by Niri and former COO Connor Gill, who left in 2023. The company operated an iPhone and Apple Watch app that offered workout tracking, AI feedback on exercise form, and a personalized AI trainer. By 2022, a job posting indicated the startup had grown to nearly one million users. A 2020 BC Business profile said Flex AI had raised $2 million and employed 15 people.
The health and fitness app market is large but fiercely competitive. According to Business of Apps, 540 million people used such apps in 2025, generating $3.4 billion in annual revenue, up nearly 25% year over year. A Fortune Business Insights study cited “high market saturation” and user retention as major challenges for the thousands of companies in the space.
Flex AI’s competitors include San Francisco-based Fitbod and New York’s FitnessAI. The company also faced pressure from GymStreak in the UK.
In a statement to BetaKit, 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 funding was exhausted. The app remains online during the wind-down.
Multiple contractors told BetaKit they were owed money for work dating back to January and were frustrated by the startup’s lack of payment and communication. After BetaKit contacted Niri about the situation, the contractors 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. He said he had drawn on personal family loans where Flex AI lacked funds.
“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.
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