HITAI, a company that turns sports video into movement and performance data, acquired the technology and intellectual property of Quell, a UK studio that built a fitness gaming console and a combat game to go with it. GamesBeat reported the deal on 31 August 2026. The price and other terms were not disclosed.
The purchase covers Quell's motion-recognition models, its patent-pending camera-less tracking technology, the firmware and hardware design of its Impact console, and Shardfall, the high-intensity combat game made for that console. HITAI said Quell's technology was built to run in real time on small, low-power devices.
The deal was structured as a purchase of technology and intellectual property rather than of the whole company. The announcement did not say how many Quell employees, if any, would join HITAI, although HITAI's chief executive referred to gaining the backing of a team that knows how to ship products.
What Quell built
London-based Quell was founded by Lorenzo Spreafico, Cameron Brookhouse, Martin Tweedie and Douglas Stidolph, with Brookhouse as chief executive. It went through Y Combinator's Summer 2020 batch. Its first product, then called the Gauntlet, was a wearable harness with sensors that measured the speed and accuracy of punches, together with adjustable resistance bands. Players controlled games by punching and dodging. A Kickstarter campaign for the device raised about $670,000 from nearly 3,000 backers, TechCrunch reported in 2020.
The hardware later became the Impact, a fitness gaming system with motion and biometric tracking and haptic feedback that uses the player's body as the controller. Built-in trackers measure calories, heart rate and speed and adjust the difficulty of games and workouts. In February 2023 the company said it had more than 10,000 pre-orders for the Impact and planned a global rollout later that year. Shardfall was developed as its launch game.
“Quell's technology allows us to build upon our video-first core to deliver exceptional products in a wide range of new spaces.”
Why HITAI is buying
HITAI uses computer vision and machine learning to convert training, event and broadcast footage into structured movement data. It is selling its platform first in combat sports and plans to expand into other sports. The data can be used for coaching, athlete analysis, live statistics, broadcasting, automated content and sports-data services.
Cameras do not always have a good view of the action. HITAI said Quell's sensor-based models would make its system more accurate and faster in settings where camera placement is difficult, and that the gaming technology would help it build more engaging content for athletes, coaches and fans. GamesBeat described the move as taking HITAI's fight analytics from television screens into gyms.
Ismail Baran, HITAI's chief executive, said the acquisition brought years of engineering work on human movement recognition into the company and would let HITAI build on its video-first core to offer products in a range of new areas.
The founders and the funding
Quell raised a seed round that closed in December 2020. TechCrunch reported it as $3 million from investors including Twitch co-founders Emmett Shear and Kevin Lin, Naval Ravikant, Tencent, Khosla Ventures, Heartcore and Social Impact Capital; the company later put the seed round at $5.6 million, with Y Combinator and JamJar Investments among the backers.
In February 2023 Quell raised a $10 million Series A led by Tencent, with Khosla Ventures, Heartcore Capital, Social Impact Capital and Ravikant following on. That took its total funding to $15.6 million. The company said the money would pay for a larger version of Shardfall and more games.
Brookhouse said a core part of Quell's mission had been to redefine what was possible in sports motion recognition, and that seeing the technology carried forward at scale by HITAI was an exceptional outcome.
What happens to the Impact
Neither company said whether the Impact console or Shardfall would continue to be sold to consumers, or what support existing owners would receive. HITAI's stated plan is to use Quell's models and sensor technology inside its own sports platform; it did not announce plans for a consumer gaming business.
