Nourish raises $35M to help millions live longer, healthier lives

QUICK TAKE

• Nourish raises $35M Series A funding led by Index Ventures to reverse America’s healthcare crisis.
• Poor nutrition is the root cause of chronic diseases affecting over half of all Americans. To address this, Nourish enables tens of thousands of patients across all 50 states to virtually receive personalized support from hundreds of registered dietitians.
• With the new funding, Nourish plans to accelerate the development of its digital platform for patients and providers, invest in AI, expand its network of registered dietitians, and deepen its strategic partnerships with insurance companies.
• Part of a cohort of New York-based health tech companies, Nourish is expanding at a critical ‘why now’ moment for digital healthcare.

THE DETAILS

The United States spent $4.7 trillion on healthcare in 2023 – that’s over $14,000 per person and more than twice as much as other comparable countries. Despite healthcare spend approaching 20% of GDP, chronic illnesses including obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, kidney disease, high cholesterol, eating disorders, and digestive diseases are at all-time highs. Unsurprisingly, more than 70% of Americans feel failed by the healthcare system, according to data from The Harris Poll.

Poor nutrition is the root cause of chronic diseases affecting over half of Americans. Registered dietitians (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 disproportionately affected by poor nutrition.

It means that historically, the medical community has addressed nutritional issues through restrictive weight loss diets or surgery in high-acuity situations. Now, 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.

Telehealth Access

Using Nourish, patients can access hundreds of registered dietitians who can provide support for conditions including adolescent eating disorders, perinatal care, diabetes and prediabetes, heart health, gut health, autoimmune diseases, cancer, and nearly 40 more. All sessions occur virtually over telehealth, with ongoing care and between-session support including meal logging, curated content, and goal tracking.

94% of patients paid $0 out of pocket across over 100,000 appointments in 2023 as Nourish partners with major insurance plans including Aetna, Anthem, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, and UnitedHealthcare. Nourish also accepts Medicare.

Co-founders Aidan Dewar, Sam Perkins, and Stephanie Liu founded Nourish in 2021, working to reorient care around sustainable, personalized lifestyle interventions. This preventative care approach comes from personal experience suffering from conditions that were ultimately treated by registered dietitians.

“Our goal is to create a win-win-win for patients, providers, and payers,” explains Sam Perkins, COO and President 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 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."
— Damir Becirovic, Index Ventures

Nourish’s proprietary matching software ensures patients are connected to RDs that best fit their condition, preferences, and lived experience. To manage the quality of its network, the company employs the providers directly and actively monitors provider quality. In addition to receiving healthcare benefits and equity in the company, Nourish providers join a robust clinical community, where RDs can ask questions and exchange clinical resources.

Expanded network

With its $35 million in Series A funding led by Index Ventures, Nourish now plans to expand its network of hundreds of dietitians to over 1,000 by the end of 2024 (a 20x increase since 2023). The company will also 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.

"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, Partner 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."

“America’s nutrition crisis is multi-dimensional."
—Aidan Dewar, Nourish

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,” concludes 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.”