Wellnify.ai: How a Halifax Start-up is Gamifying Wellness for the World

As chronic illness rates climb, healthcare costs surge, and systems strain under staffing shortages worldwide, Wellnify.ai is aiming to make wellness top of mind and universally accessible. 

Founded in Halifax by entrepreneur and former athlete Travis McDonough, Wellnify.ai is fusing behavioral science, gamification, and community values into a platform that aims to fundamentally reshape how individuals engage with their health and how governments and organizations support them.

“We’re in the middle of a trillion-dollar shift,” says McDonough. “A shift away from acute care toward prevention. The time is now to start building stronger fences at the top of the cliff rather than more ambulances at the bottom.”

McDonough’s journey to Wellnify.ai started decades ago in Halifax, where he grew up with a love for sports and a dream of competing professionally. Though his athletic career didn’t ultimately become his life’s work, it laid the foundation for a path that has consistently bridged health, performance, and technology.

“After school, I moved to Europe and opened a network of multidisciplinary healthcare clinics for elite-level athletes. About ten years in, I realized there was an incredible opportunity to break the shackles of a bricks-and-mortar environment and scale through a tech platform.”

That realization led to the founding of Kinduct in 2012, a data-driven athlete management platform that supported over 650 professional sports organizations, including the NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL. Kinduct was a behind-the-scenes powerhouse that helped teams win 25 world championships. In 2020, McDonough sold the company to a Silicon Valley entity. But his work wasn’t done. 

“Immediately after the sale, we knew we wanted to take what we used to do for LeBron James and Tom Brady and productize it, colloquialize it, and above all, democratize it.”

The result was Wellnify.ai, and the mission was clear: “How can we help create healthier and happier communities at the grassroots level across North America?”

Wellnify.ai’s ambitions are not small. McDonough sees the current state of global health as nothing short of catastrophic. 

“We are witnessing the world’s largest self-inflicted serial killing in the annals of humankind. Healthcare costs are unsustainable, chronic diseases are skyrocketing, and we’re facing a shortfall of 10 million healthcare professionals globally.”

The solution, he argues, lies not in more hospital beds, but in empowering people to take control of their own health through proactive, everyday actions.

“We want to become the incumbent wellness solution for governments, companies, and school boards – tools they can implement to get an enormous return on investment and ultimately create lifetime wellness enthusiasts.”

At the heart of Wellnify.ai is a mobile platform organized around four pillars: Body, Mind, Spirit, and Community. Each category is filled with gamified, science-backed content designed to build lasting healthy habits.

Under the Body category, for example, users can engage in augmented reality fitness challenges. 

“We’ve built proprietary algorithms that recognize movements with about 98% accuracy. It’s almost like a video game experience. You get a rep counter, a live leaderboard, and you can challenge other communities.”

The Mind section offers short educational videos followed by quizzes. The Spirit section includes meditation, mindfulness programs, and even nature sounds recorded in Nova Scotia. But it’s the Community category that McDonough is most passionate about.

“We’ve studied the healthiest cultures in the world, and what they have in common isn’t fancy equipment – it’s that they prioritize serving others. If you take a picture of a piece of litter you picked up, you earn a point. Buy a local product? More points. Volunteer your time or sign up to be a blood donor? You earn points for yourself and your community.”

These points can lead to real rewards, like local travel experiences and gift baskets filled with Nova Scotia–made goods. But more importantly, they foster connection and purpose.

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Unlike his previous venture, which was heavily US-focused, McDonough has made it a priority to build and grow Wellnify.ai in Nova Scotia. 

“This time around, we’re trying to make this as Nova Scotia as possible. We want this story to be nurtured, gestated, and scaled here in our backyard.”

That focus on the province is not just symbolic. Sixty-five percent of Wellnify.ai’s current revenue comes from within Canada, a reversal from Kinduct’s 98% international revenue. A key driver of that domestic focus has been the support of the provincial government and organizations like Invest Nova Scotia.

“We reached out to Invest Nova Scotia and welcomed them to our cap table over a year ago. We’ve also had a very collaborative relationship with the Department of Health and Wellness and the Nova Scotia Health Innovation Hub. They’ve been incredible first users of the platform and are now studying the measurable change in behavior pre- and post-usage.”

The company also boasts a star-studded list of investors, including NHL stars Connor McDavid and Mitch Marner, NBA player Jayson Tatum, and US sports franchises like the Indiana Pacers and the Indianapolis Colts. Even the President of Disney and the Saputo family have joined the cap table.

While Wellnify.ai is currently focused on the corporate wellness market, the real vision lies in something much bigger.

“Right now, healthcare is not free, but it’s freely accessible to Canadians. Wellness, however, often resides behind a paywall. Our goal is to make Nova Scotia the first truly democratized wellness population in North America.”

The implications are massive. Wellnify.ai’s platform could offer governments a dramatically cheaper alternative focused on prevention. Though exact figures aren’t public, McDonough describes the cost of the platform as “an incredibly small amount” relative to the potential savings.

“We want to clinically prove that it costs you a lot more not to use the platform than to use it. And the byproduct is hundreds of thousands – or even millions – of healthy, long-term relationships with wellness.”

As of mid-2025, Wellnify.ai is already in advanced talks with eight other Canadian provinces, three European countries, and six US states. The team is currently in a data collection phase, working to establish “clinically significant changes in behavior” to match the standards of pharmaceuticals or insurance providers.

“We’re just so excited to be able to publish that research over the next six months and hopefully then watch this thing scale around the world.”

For McDonough, Wellnify.ai is about more than just business – it’s about creating something that lasts.

“This is about giving belief to the innovative thinker in Advocate Harbour, to the teenager in Sydney, Cape Breton, to the aspiring entrepreneur in Yarmouth that they can create, nurture, and scale a company from our province.”

If Wellnify.ai succeeds, its legacy could be transformative: a platform that not only reduces healthcare costs but also rebuilds communities, reshapes behavior, and puts health back into the hands of individuals.

In the process, it may prove that world-changing innovation doesn’t need to come from Silicon Valley – it can start here at home in Nova Scotia.