Steven Bartlett’s Flight Fund is investing $2.5m in personalised nutrition company ZOE, which in December secured $38 million via its Series B extension round.
Bartlett launched the $100m-valued Flight Fund at the turn of the year. Release materials described his backers and collaborators as the “Avengers” of European entrepreneurs and stated the fund would invest between $1m (£810,000) and $10m (£8.1m) in high-growth businesses with potential of reaching a $1bn unicorn valuation. It stated the not-unambitious aim of becoming “the most successful private equity fund in Europe.”
ZOE, meanwhile, was created by scientists including Tim Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London and author of ‘The Diet Myth’, who is listed as a co-founder on its website alongside tech guys Jonathan Wolf, previously chief product officer for machine learning company Criteo and George Hadjigeorgiou, previously CEO of HouseTrip (acquired by TripAdvisor) and co-founder of efood (acquired by Delivery Hero).
Its personalised nutrition programme claims to radically reimagine a fundamental human need, eating well for your own body, and is on a mission to improve the health of millions.
Currently available in the US & UK, ZOE is also backed by international investors including Accomplice and Balderton Capital. Bartlett’s investment via Flight Fund brings the total invested in the firm so far to over $92 million. The funds will be used to scale ZOE’s operations and science to bring ZOE to millions of people globally.
Bartlett is already an established investor in the health and wellness space with previous investments in Huel, The Healing Company, atai Life Sciences, Alto Neuroscience, AbCellera and more.
As part of the investment and strategic partnership, ZOE will work directly with the Dragon’s Den star and gain access to Flight Fund’s unmatched network, which is powered in part by Bartlett’s chart-topping podcast The Diary Of A CEO and marketing company Flight Story, which provides the people, processes and technology to help accelerate the fund’s portfolio.
ZOE’s personalised nutrition programme starts with comprehensive at-home tests that analyse blood sugar, blood fat responses and gut microbiome. Combining these results with artificial intelligence and data from thousands of participants in its proprietary ZOE PREDICT studies, ZOE generates personalised scores for any food an individual eats. ZOE members then learn to build sustainable daily habits with in-app tools, lessons and expert nutrition support to help them eat the best foods for their bodies and their health goals.
Bartlett said: “Once in a while I come across a company that truly has the potential to move the world forward in a profound way. It takes a great team, with a bold vision and a well executed product roadmap to do so. That is exactly what I found in ZOE. It’s a company that represents the future – health science, driven by big data, that enables us to extend not just our life-span, but more importantly our health span. I’m deeply proud to be an investor and now an ambassador of a company that I truly believe will change the world by leading the nutrition-science revolution.”
George Hadjigeorgiou, president & co-founder of ZOE added: “We are unbelievably excited to be partnering with Steven. Since my co-founder, Professor Tim Spector was on The Diary of a CEO talking Steven through key ZOE principles, such as no calorie counting and the impact of gut health on wellbeing, we’ve had huge interest in ZOE and our personalised nutrition programme. From working with Steven and having him use the ZOE programme first-hand, we know he aligns with our mission to double-down on health science to help more people get control of their health and improve the health of millions.”
