A British wellness start-up, championed by celebrities including Davina McCall and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, has secured a $15 million investment from New York-based Coefficient Capital as it expands its operations in the United States.
Zoe, launched in April 2022, offers a smartphone app that provides users with personalised nutrition advice. The company was co-founded by Tim Spector, a professor at King’s College London, alongside Jonathan Wolf and George Hadjigeorgiou, who have backgrounds in artificial intelligence and consumer apps.
Users receive a do-it-yourself kit to monitor their gut health, blood sugar levels, and blood fat. The test results are used to deliver personalised recipe recommendations. The starter package costs £299 for a four-month testing phase, plus an additional £35 monthly subscription. Shortly after its launch, Zoe had a waiting list of 250,000 people and is now aiming to expand in America.
“There’s a really big opportunity for us in the States, which is going through an even worse health crisis than we are in the UK,” said Wolf, 49. “The situation there is further advanced because the food has been worse in the US for longer.”
In the US, Zoe faces competition from companies like Levels, which provides glucose monitors and an app to its members. However, Zoe claims its scientific foundation gives it an edge over rivals in the wellness space. The company recently published results from an 18-week trial of its products in the academic journal Nature Medicine. “I think that in the States, even more so than in the UK, there are an enormous number of companies that make a lot of claims without really anything that sits behind it to back it up,” Wolf said.
Despite its success, Zoe has faced criticism. A report by the Food Standards Agency last year described the benefits of personalised nutrition systems like Zoe as “somewhat marginal.”
To date, Zoe has raised $118 million through various fundraising efforts, including an $8.5 million crowdfunding campaign. Coefficient Capital has previously invested in consumer brands such as Oatly, the oat milk manufacturer, and healthcare start-ups like Sesame and Starship.
As Zoe prepares to expand in the US, the investment from Coefficient Capital will support its growth and help it tackle the country’s significant health challenges.
