Zoopla CEO Alex Chesterman invested in an AI-powered vitamin startup

Alex Chesterman, the CEO of property website Zoopla, has invested in VITL, a healthcare startup that's preparing to launch a service that uses artificial intelligence to personalise vitamin deliveries.

It's a curious concept: You enter your health information into an app, noting any illnesses you have, and then it uses that data to suggest some vitamins you should be taking.

VITL says it's working on including data from wearable devices as well as DNA information to make its service more personalised.

VITL has raised a $1.5 million (£1.2 million) seed round from investors including Chesterman, David de Rothschild, LoveFilm cofounder Simon Franks, drum and bass duo Sigma, and Bloom & Wild founder Ben Stanway.

Vitamins aren't a wonder drug that will keep you healthy if you take them. Studies have shown that standard multivitamins don't actually do a lot of good. In fact, a 2011 study of around 39,000 older women over 25 years found that the women who took multivitamins for a long period of time had a higher risk of death than those who did not.

But there is, however, a body of evidence to suggest that taking individual vitamins can be useful. That's good news for VITL, which advocates a personalised approach to healthcare instead of a generic "one pill treats all" outlook.

VITL already sells subscription packs online, but it's preparing to launch the new artificial intelligence service. The nutrition packs it sells cost from £33.95 per month with a subscription.

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