The virtual platform connects people with registered dietitians for personalized nutrition counseling covered by their insurance.
Nourish, a telenutrition platform that connects people to registered dietitians covered by insurance, announced today that it has raised $35 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Index Ventures with participation from Maverick Ventures and TCV. Also participating in the round were existing backers Y Combinator, Thrive Capital and BoxGroup and several prominent angel investors including professional soccer player Alex Morgan and founders from Oscar, Olipop, and Notion. With $44M in total funding since its founding in 2021, Nourish plans to accelerate development of its digital platform for patients and providers, expand its network of registered dietitians (RDs), and deepen its strategic partnerships with insurance companies.
Poor nutrition is the root cause of chronic diseases affecting over half of Americans. Clinical evidence shows that RDs are highly effective at preventing and managing the most prevalent chronic conditions, yet access to outpatient nutrition care has been limited due to a lack of in-network providers and prohibitively expensive cash-pay options. Access is particularly limited amongst lower-income patient populations that are disproportionately affected by poor nutrition. By working with insurance companies to bring RDs in-network and offering care virtually, Nourish is making nutrition care accessible to the 150 million Americans struggling with nutrition-related chronic diseases.
With hundreds of dietitians and tens of thousands of patients across all 50 states, Nourish plans to expand its network to over 1,000 RDs by the end of 2024 (a 20x increase since 2023). Nourish RDs provide personalized support for patients spanning different life-stages and conditions, including adolescent eating disorders, perinatal care, diabetes and prediabetes, heart health, gut health, autoimmune diseases, cancer, and nearly 40 more.
“Our goal is to create a win-win-win for patients, providers, and payers,” said Sam Perkins, co-founder, President and COO of Nourish. “For patients, we unlock access to personalized nutrition care that has historically been limited to a subset that can afford to spend thousands of dollars out-of-pocket. For RDs, we remove the barriers to accepting insurance, enabling them to focus on patients and building their practices rather than administrative tasks and paperwork. For payers, we’re providing access to a high-quality dietitian network and virtual nutrition platform to measure and improve clinical outcomes.”
Nourish connects patients to an RD who delivers medical nutrition therapy interventions to help patients change their eating behaviors and improve their relationship with food.
Outside of sessions, patients can interact with their RD in real-time via Nourish’s mobile app to share what they’re eating, ask questions, and track progress. Through direct partnerships with major health insurance companies, Nourish can offer its services to 94% of patients for $0 out-of-pocket.
"Nourish wants to help build a healthcare system that prioritizes preventative care and meets patients where they are through digital-first, user-friendly technology and clinical support," stated Stephanie Liu, co-founder and CTO of Nourish.
Nourish’s proprietary matching software ensures patients are connected to RDs that are best fit to their condition, preferences, and lived experience, leading to a patient NPS score of 95. To manage the quality of its network, the company practices measurement-based care using data from patient surveys, electronic medical records, labs, and medical devices. Nourish providers also join a robust clinical community, where RDs can ask questions and exchange clinical resources.
"We are rigorous about delivering patient-centric, evidence-based care," explained Dominique Adair, RD, Head of Clinical Quality at Nourish. “We monitor outcomes very closely, both on the patient and population level, to make sure that our interventions are making a difference in disease resolution and risk reduction. We are thrilled to see early signals not just in improvements in overall health and goal achievement, but in disease specific metrics including weight, gut health symptoms, diabetes markers, eating disorder symptoms, and blood pressure."
With this round of funding, Nourish will continue investing in AI-powered tools to enhance personalization for patients and streamline administrative workflows for RDs. Nourish is also building technology to integrate "food as medicine" into the program by enabling RDs to “prescribe” diets tailored to patients’ specific needs and preferences. By partnering with insurance companies and grocery delivery services, Nourish plans to address food insecurity and social determinants of health. With the rapid growth of GLP-1 medications for diabetes and weight loss, Nourish is collaborating with key industry stakeholders to offer nutrition support to optimize outcomes and mitigate high medical costs. The platform is seeing significant demand from these populations, with 29% of new patients taking or having previously tried GLP-1 medications.
“America’s nutrition crisis is multi-dimensional,” said Aidan Dewar, co-founder and CEO of Nourish. “There’s an education problem with people confused by conflicting messages and ultimately not understanding what to eat to nourish themselves. There’s a behavioral health problem because sustainable habit change is necessary but difficult and exacerbated by restrictive fad diets and unrealistic body standards that undermine people’s relationship with food. Lastly, there’s a major access problem with many people unable to access and afford healthy food. Nourish’s goal is to address all of these issues.”
“Nourish’s mission is deeply personal to me,” said Alex Morgan, professional soccer player and Nourish angel investor. “I’ve felt firsthand the importance of nutrition both as an athlete and as a mom, and I’ve been fortunate to work with a dietitian over the last several years to really hone in on a diet that works for me. I’m thrilled to team up with Nourish to help more people get access to the same experience that I’ve had.”
"Nourish is tackling the biggest problem in America. Most Americans struggle with nutrition and the result is a country plagued by chronic conditions and other health issues,” said Damir Becirovic and Paris Heymann, Partners at Index Ventures. “Nourish aims to help tens of millions of Americans by providing access to a dietitian and the incredible nutritional education, accountability, and care that they provide. We couldn't think of a more inspiring company to support."
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