London movement-intelligence startup HITAI has acquired the technology and intellectual property of Quell, the UK fitness gaming developer that raised a $10m (€8.63m) Tencent-led Series A in 2023 and counted Y Combinator, Khosla Ventures and Heartcore Capital among its backers. Terms were not disclosed.
The deal covers Quell's motion-recognition models, the firmware and hardware stack behind its Impact console, and Shardfall, the high-intensity combat game the studio built as its flagship title. What HITAI has bought is an asset package rather than a corporate entity, and neither side has put a figure on it.
Quell was founded in 2020 by Lorenzo Spreafico, Cameron Brookhouse, Martin Tweedie and Douglas Stidolph. Its product paired lightweight motion tracking with athlete-grade resistance bands, giving players physical feedback in-game, and the company claimed an average burn of more than 600 kcal an hour. That proposition was enough to attract an unusually blue-chip register for a fitness gaming business: Y Combinator, Khosla Ventures, Heartcore Capital and Tencent, which led the Series A three years ago.
HITAI is building in an adjacent but distinct market. Founded by chief executive Ismail Baran, it converts existing training, event and broadcast footage into structured movement and performance data using computer vision and machine learning, without wearables, sensors or specialist camera rigs. The company is commercialising in combat sports first, with plans to widen into selected additional sports.
The strategic logic is a technology gap rather than a customer list. HITAI's platform is video-first; Quell's stack is camera-less and patent-pending, engineered to run in real time on compact, low-power hardware. Bolting the two together is meant to hold accuracy up in venues where camera placement is awkward, which is precisely the constraint that limits video-only systems at live events.
"This acquisition brings years of cutting-edge engineering in the field of human movement recognition into the HITAI fold, with the backing of a team that knows how to ship," Baran said. He added that Quell's technology allows HITAI "to build upon our video-first core to deliver exceptional products in a wide range of new spaces".
Quell chief executive Cameron Brookhouse described the outcome in terms of continuity rather than exit economics. "A core part of Quell's mission was redefining what was possible in sports motion recognition. Seeing this technology carried forward at scale by HITAI is an exceptional outcome, and we're excited to be a part of their future," he said.
Without disclosed consideration, the return to Quell's investors cannot be assessed. What is clear is the direction of travel: hardware-led consumer fitness has been a difficult category to scale, and the underlying motion-recognition engineering is now heading into a business-to-business sports data platform instead.
Original source: EU-Startups — https://www.eu-startups.com/2026/08/london-based-hitai-acquires-yc-backed-fitness-gaming-developer-quell-to-strengthen-its-sports-motion-tracking-platform/
