Over the last couple of years, we have seen a big push in the “quantified self” market with a ton of apps that help you make better lifestyle decisions based on real data, provided by you. These apps have been focused more on exercise and training rather than nutrition, however this is about to change.
Nutrino, launched just last month, is “the worlds first virtual nutritionist app” for iOS (Android is on the way soon), providing you with personalized meals based on your eating habits, goals, taste, dietary preferences and exercise levels. Not only does it offer you truly tailor made meals but also posts the necessary ingredients to a grocery list which is linked to stock in large supermarket chains (to date users can shop online through ASDA and Tesco in the UK). But it doesn’t stop there. Nutrino also suggests recommendations from high street names such as Pret a Manger, EAT, Costa Coffee and Café Nero so if you’re out on the town, it will provide you with offers and suitable eating options. They’re expanding their list of partners on a daily basis and will be rolling out in new countries soon as to multiply their offering.
Nutrino was founded by an international team, divided between Tel Aviv and London. Their story starts back in the Israeli military where two of the founders, Jonathan Lipnik and Yaron Hadad were developing optimization algorithms for classifying and allocating resources. The two, aware of how difficult it is to find interesting and healthy meal choices, realized that the algorithms could be adapted for public eating preferences. 10 years later, they are taking the market by storm.
Based on both implicit and explicit feedback, Nutrino adapts to you in real time, continuously improving its meal recommendations. Whereas other solutions on the market are based on tiresome and dispiriting methods such as tracking, Nutrino requires nominal user interaction, making it reliable and easy to use. “We created Nutrino because we were tired of seeing so much of the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to nutrition. We believe nutrition should be personal to each individual,” says Jonathan Lipnik, CEO and co-founder of Nutrino.
Before getting started, you complete a short questionnaire within the app, which helps generate your initial profile. After defining your goals, culinary tastes, eating habits, and preferences, Nutrino gets to work. It learns your habits and preferences over time and tailors the eating plan to you. Jonathan defines it as the “most advanced algorithm for nutrition available”. He also adds “People are using lots of different apps and gadgets to track their diet or fitness but there is nothing out there that delivers recommendations that are personalized to each of us.”
Nutrino offers an API to big communities such as publishers, health institutions, insurance companies and fitness organizations which use Nutrino as a service (SaaS) to create their own tailored diet planning solution. Through this model Nutrino can target big communities with different needs – overweight, foodies, diabetes, hypertension, athletes and so on. These communities are constantly in search for services that will guide them in their daily lives, and have high willingness to pay subscription fees. The model is based on revenue sharing of subscription fees between the community and Nutrino.
Finalists of TNW Startup Rally in the European Conference celebrated in Amsterdam last April and winners of Startup World, they have previously raised $400,000 from family and private investors and are currently raising an additional round for further expansion and to build out their team. The founders are Jonathan Lipnik, Yaron Hadad, José Luis Martín de Bustamante, Eduard Ros, and Ido Cohn.
Considering that there are more than 1 billion overweight adults in the world, the Nutrino team have their work cut out for them. Good luck guys!
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