Gut nutrition startup Zoe Health adds £25 million to its series B raise

Zoe Health, a UK-based personalised nutrition testing app that's conducting a large-scale nutrition science study group, has announced a £25 million ($30.7 million) series B extension, bringing its total funding to $83.7 million.

The funding will fuel a scaling up mission as Zoe Health aims to satisfy the 250,000 people on the waiting list for its nutrition tests.

Venture firm Accomplice led the round, with participation from Balderton Capital, Ahren, Daphni and private equity firm L Catterton. With the institutional series B out of the way, Zoe Health is throwing out a crowdfunding campaign, starting from December 14 on the Crowdcube platform.

Zoe Health was founded earlier this year to conduct deep-dive scientific testing into nutrition, the microbiome, sleep and other long-term health concerns correlated with food.

Members receive an at-home test kit on signing up and will get "tailored insights into how to eat for their bodies and long-term health."

The brand is linked to a microbiome health plan put forward by King's College London professor Tim Spector, Zoe Health's co-founder, that focuses on gut health, blood fats and blood sugars.

In its nutrition science study, called PREDICT, Zoe Health has strived to reflect the unique health response of each participant to understand how foods we might not generally associate with a reaction could play a role.

The study is billed as the world's largest for nutrition science, backed by scientists from King's College as well as Massachusetts General Hospital, Stanford Medicine and the Harvard T.H Chan public health school in the US.

Nutrition scientists consider a person's diet to help treat health problems ranging from insomnia to skin disorders and stomach problems, but identifying exactly which food and why is harder.

The first tranche of Zoe Health's funding raised $33 million and was announced in May 2021 alongside a $20 million series B top-up led by Ahren Innovation Capital.

Two retired professional American football players, Eli Manning and Osi Umenyiora, also took part in the nutrition company's series B, as did Accomplice, Daphni and THVC.