Check out the pitch deck Second Nature used to raise $10 million in order to tackle obesity in the UK
- London-based health startup Second Nature has raised $10 million from Beringea.
- The company provides a 12-week programme to help those who are obese.
- "Obestity is an epidemic and the figures have gone up and up for the past 15 years," Chris Edson, Second Nature cofounder and CEO told Business Insider in an interview. "It's costing £15 billion a year to the NHS every year and is crippling the health system."
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London-based startup Second Nature (formerly OurPath) has raised $10 million from Beringea to expand its product offering.
The company provides a 12-week programme for obesity sufferers. The company's program tracks users on a smartphone app and uses expert health advice to assess whether users have lost weight. Second Nature, founded in 2015, was borne out of the lack of innovation within the British health system as well as advances in behavioural science applications.
"Obestity is an epidemic and the figures have gone up and up for the past 15 years," Chris Edson, Second Nature cofounder and CEO told Business Insider in an interview. "It's costing £15 billion to the NHS every year and is crippling the health system."
The health tech startup is the first "lifestyle change programme" to be commissioned by the UK's National Health Service (NHS) for diabetes management.
"It was important that we were able to operate separately to the NHS," Edson added. "It's a very risk-averse institutional naturally and we needed to spend time testing, iterating, and ultimately failing a lot to get where we are today."
Other investors in the round included Uniqa Ventures, the venture capital fund of European insurance group Uniqa, and the founders of mySugr, the digital diabetes management platform which was acquired by Roche. Existing investors Connect, Speedinvest, and Bethnal Green Ventures also participated alongside Transferwise cofounder Taavet Hinrikus.
The company will use the funds to increase its headcount, which currently stands at 80, by building out its marketing and engineering teams and intends to provide new products in 2020 as well.
"Healthcare systems are struggling to cope with spiraling rates of obesity and associated illnesses, which are projected to cost the global economy $1.2 trillion annually by 2025," Philip Edmondson-Jones, an investment manager at Beringea who will join the startup's board.
"Second Nature's pioneering approach to lifestyle change empowers people to address these conditions, develop sustainably healthier habits, and foster long-term physical and mental wellbeing in the process."
Check out Second Nature's (redacted) pitch deck below.