Project Well lands US$2M to accelerate food-as-medicine nutrition platform

23 Feb 2021 --- Food-as-medicine marketplace Project Well has raised US$2 million in seed financing from food systems, healthcare and technology investors.

The new platform is designed to materially improve the lives of those suffering from diet sensitive chronic disease and food insecurity.

“The primary use of proceeds from its seed round will be to expand commercialization and pilot efforts with health plan and medical group partners to address their members’ most actionable and critical non-clinical needs,” says Lauren Driscoll, founder and CEO of Project Well.

With Project Well, customers can reduce medical costs and differentiate themselves in a competitive market, explains Driscoll.

“Members and patients ‘win’ as they can optimize their health and well-being. Food producers and vendors also ‘win’ as they gain access to a broad segment of the population that has been slow to adopt and successfully navigate the e-commerce food market.”

The investors’ list include S2G Ventures (S2G), Primetime Partners, Tom Scully – who is currently at Welsh Carson and former administrator of CMS – and angel investors from Formation Capital.

Food-as-medicine platform
Project Well is touted as the first food-as-medicine market platform designed to drive lasting dietary change for health plan members. 

The primary use of proceeds from its seed round will be to expand commercialization.The platform unlocks the untapped potential of nutrition by integrating clinically tailored meals and diet education into the health care payment and delivery system. This is done to improve the health of patients and lowering health-plan-spend at scale.

Project Well’s platform matches at-risk members with registered dietitians. It vets food solutions and leverages behavioral science to support lasting dietary change and improved health outcomes. 

“By getting to know each individual member and their eating habits, the Project Well platform can provide highly personalized food interventions. This way it may improve health, slow the progression of chronic disease and reduce healthcare costs,” the company says. 

The US faces a public health crisis that continues to grow unabated. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are currently 24 million Medicare Advantage members with 68 percent of those members suffering from chronic disease. 

By 2025, these numbers are expected to rise to 38 million and 80 percent. In the US, 90 percent of the total US$3.5 trillion spent on health care can be linked to costs associated with treating chronic conditions. These conditions include heart disease, diabetes and obesity – all of which can be prevented, mitigated or managed with a healthy diet. 

“Very specific food and dietary intervention is a hugely underdeveloped factor in improving the health of complex patients and lowering their health costs. Project Well has the most developed plan I have seen to help these patients,” says Scully.

Better-for-me nutrition
The concept of food as medicine is on the rise, with consumers increasingly looking to their food to supply the nutrients needed to preserve and promote health. 

In a 2020 Innova Consumer Survey, four out of five respondents affirmed: “I believe in progress in food and beverages through science.”

Project Well is a food-as-medicine market platform designed to drive lasting dietary change for health plan members.Additionally, the market researcher’s 2018 Lifestyle and Attitudes Survey revealed that three in four US consumers made changes to their diet to try to be healthier, including reducing intake of sugar, fat and calories, while increasing protein.

Previously, a Kerry-endorsed study conducted on 1,000 US consumers illustrated that the concept of “food as medicine” as a clear influencer of well-being is very real.  

“In Tune with Immune” is pegged as one of Innova Market Insights’ Top Trends for 2021, reflecting how health will steer the development of functional ingredients in the coming years.

According to Innova’s Consumer Survey 2020, six out of ten global consumers are increasingly looking for F&B products that support their immune health, with one in three saying that concerns about immune health increased in 2020 over 2019.

Personalized functional foods
A personalized nutrition boom is also evident to tailor to consumers’ individual nutritional needs. “Tailored to Fit” ‘is one of Innova Market Insights’ Top Trends for 2021, bringing personalized nutrition further into the spotlight and highlighting differences in generational preferences within this category. 

“There is evidence that clinically tailored meals can reduce emergency department use by 70 percent and hospital admissions by 52 percent,” says Abby Levy, co-founder and managing partner at Primetime Partners. 

“Project Well combines the widest choice in food with clinical support to drive impressive adoption rates. This personalized program understands each member’s relationship with food from culture, traditions, income, culinary knowledge, mobility and more – meeting them where they are in their journey to a healthier diet,” Levy notes.

Previously, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded a US$2.9 million grant for “food as medicine” research that will focus on using medically tailored meal delivery as an effective health care intervention for diabetes. 

NutritionInsight has reported on ready meals players that seek to promote gut health and tackle inflammation via their tailored offerings.

By Kristiana Lalou