Around 43% of adults globally are overweight, a number that continues to climb each year, according to the World Health Organization. Physical inactivity remains one of the biggest drivers of preventable health problems. That’s the challenge KinesteX, an AI-powered motion tracking startup, aims to solve by making movement smarter, safer, and more accessible for everyone.
Founded in 2021 by Nikita Starov and his co-founders, KinesteX uses AI motion tracking and personalized feedback to help people exercise correctly and avoid injuries. The company offers its technology as a white-label SDK, enabling other fitness and wellness platforms to integrate intelligent motion tracking without building it from scratch.
The idea was born during the pandemic when Starov saw millions of people stuck at home, struggling with back pain and limited activity. He wondered: if computer vision can recognize faces, why not human movement? That question became the foundation of KinesteX.
The first prototype turned smartphones into AI-powered fitness coaches that analyzed body movement and gave instant feedback. The tech worked, but the consumer market wasn’t ready. After testing three business models and facing countless investor rejections, the team pivoted from launching a standalone app to empowering other platforms.
The real breakthrough came when two early clients asked if KinesteX could integrate its motion tracking into their own apps. That single request reshaped the company’s future. Instead of competing with existing fitness apps, KinesteX became the technology partner behind them.
The team rebuilt its product as a scalable white-label SDK, allowing partners to embed AI motion tracking features such as posture correction, repetition counting, calorie estimation, and injury prevention. All data is processed locally on users’ devices, ensuring full data privacy and compliance, a major differentiator in the digital health space.
Today, KinesteX powers a growing ecosystem of fitness, corporate wellness, and digital health platforms, helping them bring AI-driven movement analysis to millions of users worldwide.
Raising capital wasn’t easy. The team spoke with over 300 investors before securing commitments from 13 backers, including a family office and several angel investors, for a total of $1 million. Starov admits the journey was exhausting, but persistence paid off.
“At first, all the rejections felt discouraging,” he says. “Then we realized it’s just a numbers game. Out of hundreds of meetings, a few people truly believe in your vision.”
Investors saw more than just a promising product, they saw a resilient team willing to pivot, learn, and refine its mission until it solved a real problem.
For Starov, the biggest takeaway wasn’t about fundraising, it was about value. “You need to know who you’re building for, what problem you’re solving, and why it matters,” he reflects. “We spent two years building something cool that didn’t solve a real problem. If I could start over, I’d begin with that question.”
That clarity now drives KinesteX’s vision: to make movement data actionable and meaningful for people and businesses alike. Whether it’s helping a fitness app coach users in real time or enabling a corporate wellness platform to improve employee health, KinesteX is redefining how the world moves.
