San Francisco, CA (February 10th, 2022) – Elo
, the Smart Nutrition company turning food from the leading cause of disease to medicine by harnessing the power of at-home testing, AI, and nutritional coaching, today announces $5 million in seed funding from over 100 founders, CEOs, and technology operators. Investors include Will Ventures
, founded by former NFL player Isaiah Kacyvenski; Re:food.vc
, founded by Gustaf Brandberg; Petteri Lahtela, Founder of Oura
; Robin Thurston, CEO of Outside
; Ilkka Paananen, Founder of Supercell
; David Helgason, Founder of Unity
; Jeremy Bloom, former Olympic skier and CEO of Integrate
; Ed Baker, board member at Whoop
; Alex Biega, player on the Toronto Maple Leafs
; and many more. The funding unlocks Elo’s ability to scale its operations, marketing, and product development efforts.
Founded in 2020, Elo officially launches with its first Smart Nutrition product, a monthly smart supplement membership uniquely formulated for each member’s needs and goals. Leveraging easy and convenient at-home blood testing, activity metrics from wearables, and cutting-edge AI trained on over 3,000 scientific studies, Elo analyzes members’ biomarkers and health data to create custom supplement regimens with exactly the right nutrients in the right doses and delivers them right to members’ doors each month.
Setting Elo apart from both generic and questionnaire-based supplements, which lack the insights to be precise and effective, and in-person lab testing, which is inconvenient for most—from a simple finger prick at home, Elo screens members’ blood for 12 nutrient-related biomarkers including cholesterol, hemoglobin A1c, ferritin, vitamin D, B-12, and more, then makes custom nutrition and lifestyle recommendations that are scientifically-validated to improve energy, focus, mood, digestion, aging, immunity, and sleep, so members can feel and perform their best. Each daily supplement packet contains only the highest-quality ingredients specifically selected for each person’s health outcomes. Elo’s supplement formulary includes 79 active compounds, all of which undergo rigorous third-party testing for purity and dosage.
“The idea for Elo was born out of personal tragedy and triumph. After watching my wife suffer through undiagnosed challenges for many years, followed by a decade of experience as the CEO of both BetterDoctor and Quest Analytics, I have a unique vantage point of our current healthcare system,” said Ari Tulla, Co-founder & CEO of Elo.
“I’ve spoken with hundreds of doctors, healthcare leaders, and policymakers, and concluded that the only way to correct the current health trajectory is to transform food from the root cause of disease to our best medicine.”
According to a 25-year study published in 2018 in The Journal of the American Medical Association, diseases linked to inadequate nutrition and unhealthful lifestyle choices, such as diabetes and cancer, are the leading causes of death in the United States. In Elo’s own data, 9 out of 10 members start its supplement program with biomarkers out-of-range, the most common being low vitamin D and HDL.
“Each person’s unique nutrition needs are difficult to understand and the nutrition industry is fraught with one-size-fits-all solutions, mixed messages, and outright misinformation, while current personalized nutrition products only go surface deep with their analysis,” said Edwina Clark, MS, RD, Dietitian at Elo. “Bringing together precision, quality, and convenience, Elo takes the guesswork out of which products to purchase by creating a comprehensive picture of what someone needs to perform at their best.”
Every Elo member is paired with a dedicated nutritionist to support their health journey, meeting one-on-one to review lab results, set goals, and calibrate supplement plans. In addition, members have unlimited access to their nutritionist via the Elo app where they can also read curated articles, set smart reminders to take their daily supplements, and track their ongoing progress. During Elo’s year-long beta program, 95% of members saw positive biomarker improvement within 6 months.
“As a former NFL player, I am constantly trying to recreate the training, diet, recovery, sleep, and hydration regime that led to feeling my best physically, mentally, and emotionally,” said Isaiah Kacyvenski, founder of Will Ventures. “Elo uses advanced AI to analyze your personal health biomarkers and create a precision nutrition plan just for you. It has helped me immensely on my journey to feeling my healthiest again.”
For $99 a month, members get access to at-home biomarker testing, a comprehensive nutrition assessment, personalized supplements delivered each month, and on-going progress tracking and support via the Elo app. Members are regularly retested to calibrate their custom formulas, because as each person’s lifestyle, health, and needs change, so should their supplements. For more information, please visit www.elo.health
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