$8M investment will help Nutrino uncover trends, marketing breaks based on personalized nutrition

10-Apr-2018 - Last updated on 10-Apr-2018 at 12:26 GMT

With a successful series A fundraise of $8 million announced today, nutrition-related data services and analytics firm Nutrino wants to build “the world’s largest and most adaptable nutrition insights platform” in part to help manufacturers track trends, test product ideas and understand the competitive landscape, according to the company co-founder.

“Trends vary all the time in the nutrition world – especially with packaged foods,” and it can be difficult for brands to know what the next fad will be and whether they can capitalize on it before it fades, Yaron Hadad, co-founder of Nutrino, told FoodNavigator-USA.

But, he adds, by building a “very precise and huge database of foods from official sources,” along with an artificial intelligence and machine learning based analytic system, “we can detect new trends as they are emerging, and help brands identify which of their products are suitable for which diets.”

The database already has 1.6 million products and with the funds raised from Pereg Ventures, Nielsen Ventures and Gandyr Group along with existing investors, including the New York Angels group, the company hopes to add 8.4 million more to reach 10 million over the coming year, Hadad said.

The database draws on information that Nutrino has collected over the past two years as part of its FoodPrint technology, which creates a picture of how different foods affect different people’s bodies based on a combination of information about what they eat along with their sleep and activity cycles, glucose and insulin levels, temperature, mood, social media use, taste, allergies, DNA and blood tests and other measurements.

Some of this data is collected from an app the company developed that extracts what people eat based on photos they take of their meals and combines it with measurements they take on their glucose level over a handful of days, Hadad said. Based on this, the company can help consumers better understand how different foods impact them and ultimately guide them to make healthier choices.

So far the company has worked primarily with partners to help diabetics measure and manage their health, but the series A funds will allow it to expand its services to other sectors, Hadad said.

“Until today, for the last two years, we have been very focused on the world of diabetes and we have done quite a bit – especially with little resources but with partnerships such as with Medtronic and three others in that world,” he explained. “Over the next year, you will see us going to do more work in diabetes, but also going to other sectors, such as the food sector, potentially pharmaceutical, hypertension and show them how our technology can be relevant and useful in those fields,” he added.

Looking specifically at the future potential for the technology for food and beverage manufacturers, Hadad explained that Nutrino can help companies better understand their competitive landscape, including what types of products already are available, how consumers use those and other products across geographic markets and how likely people are to eat and enjoy certain types of products, including flavor profiles, Hadad said.

Hadad explained that by helping manufacturers develop and market more nutritious options Nutrino will make progress on its ultimate goal of helping consumers select products that are healthier for their unique body needs.