Key Points:
- Built a $400M fitness empire from downloadable workouts to the globally successful Sweat app.
- Selling success came with emotional challenges, showing exits aren’t always easy for founders.
- Bought back Sweat to regain control and refocus on long-term vision and community.
Greek-Australian fitness entrepreneur Kayla Itsines has drawn renewed global attention after a brief street interview in New York unexpectedly spotlighted one of the most successful digital fitness stories of the past decade. During the exchange, the 34-year-old casually revealed that she became a millionaire in her early twenties and later sold her fitness platform, Sweat, in a deal valued at approximately $400 million.
The candid response stunned onlookers and social media audiences alike, particularly in the United States, where many were unfamiliar with the scale of Itsines’ success. Born and raised in Adelaide to Greek immigrant parents, Itsines began her career as a personal trainer before gaining international recognition through her Bikini Body Guides. What started as downloadable workout programs quickly evolved into a full-scale digital fitness ecosystem.
In 2015, Kayla Itsines and her then-partner Tobi Pearce launched Sweat as a subscription-based mobile app focused on structured workout plans for women. The platform grew at a rapid pace, becoming one of the most downloaded fitness apps globally and hosting hundreds of millions of completed workouts within a few years.
Selling, Letting Go, and Buying Back
In 2021, Sweat was acquired by a major U.S. fitness technology company in a landmark deal reported to be worth around $400 million. At the time, the acquisition was seen as a defining moment in the digital fitness boom, accelerated by the global shift toward home workouts.
However, Kayla Itsines later acknowledged that selling the company came with unexpected emotional challenges. Having built Sweat from the ground up, separating her personal identity from the brand proved difficult. She has since spoken openly about feeling overwhelmed during the period following the sale, describing it as both professionally validating and personally disorienting.
That chapter came full circle when Itsines and Pearce reacquired Sweat several years later. The move was driven by a desire to regain creative and strategic control, as well as to realign the business with its original community-focused vision. By the time of the buyback, Sweat had established itself as a long-standing player in the competitive global fitness market, offering thousands of workouts across multiple training programs.
Kayla Itsines has also emphasized the importance of financial diversification, noting that even highly successful digital businesses can be vulnerable to market shifts and technological disruption.
Global Impact and Entrepreneurial Legacy
The viral interview sparked widespread online discussion, with many viewers expressing disbelief at how quietly Itsines delivered news of her financial success. Others viewed the moment as a reminder of how digital entrepreneurship can create immense value outside traditional corporate pathways.
Today, Kayla Itsines commands an online following of more than 15 million people and remains one of the most influential figures in the global wellness industry. Her journey from a young personal trainer to the founder of a company valued in the hundreds of millions has become a reference point for aspiring entrepreneurs, particularly women building businesses in the digital economy.
As Sweat continues under its original leadership once again, Kayla Itsines’ story stands as a rare example of building, selling, losing, and reclaiming a global brand while reshaping the modern fitness industry along the way.
