Nourish Raises $35M To Connect Americans With Registered Dietitians
The telenutrition startup partners with health insurers to deliver in-network dietitian services to patients at zero out-of-pocket cost
One hundred fifty million Americans are dealing with nutrition-related chronic diseases — a staggering number that Nourish, a telenutrition platform, plans to reduce by expanding access to registered dietitians (RDs).
The health tech startup is on track to do just that, having secured $35 million in a Series A funding round that included an investment from professional soccer star Alex Morgan, bringing its total funding to $44 million since its inception in 2021.
With a new injection of capital, Nourish plans to offer Americans access to an additional 1,000 registered dietitians (RDs) by the end of the year. The telenutrition platform also plans to strengthen its partnerships with insurance companies to deliver in-network dietitians to users virtually, advance AI efforts to increase personalization for patients and streamline administrative workflows.
Having access to in-network RDs who offer expert support and guidance can remove common barriers for those struggling with poor nutrition, and the telenutrition startup says it can offer its services to 94% of patients at zero out-of-pocket cost to patients through direct partnerships with major health insurance companies.
“Our goal is to create a win-win-win for patients, providers, and payers,” said Sam Perkins, co-founder, president and COO of Nourish. “For patients, we unlock access to personalized nutrition care that has historically been limited to a subset that can afford to spend thousands of dollars out-of-pocket. For RDs, we remove the barriers to accepting insurance, enabling them to focus on patients and building their practices rather than administrative tasks and paperwork. For payers, we’re providing access to a high-quality dietitian network and virtual nutrition platform to measure and improve clinical outcomes.”
The nutrition platform is available across all 50 states and is in-network with providers such as Aetna, Cigna, United, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Medicare.
Nourish RDs provide patients with personalized well-being support that covers several areas, such as adolescent eating disorders, perinatal care, diabetes and prediabetes, heart health, gut health, autoimmune diseases, cancer and more.
Beyond individual sessions, patients can also connect with their RD using Nourish’s app to share their meals, ask questions and track progress.
Nourish is also developing technology to incorporate “food as medicine” into its program, allowing registered dietitians to “prescribe” diets based on individual needs.
Index Ventures led the most recent round, which included participation from Maverick Ventures, TCV and support from existing backers Y Combinator, Thrive Capital and BoxGroup. Funding also included participation from the founders of Oscar, Olipop and Notion.
Courtney Rehfeldt has worked in the broadcasting media industry since 2007 and has freelanced since 2012. Her work has been featured in Age of Awareness, Times Beacon Record, The New York Times, and she has an upcoming piece in Slate. She studied yoga & meditation under Beryl Bender Birch at The Hard & The Soft Yoga Institute. She enjoys hiking, being outdoors, and is an avid reader. Courtney has a BA in Media & Communications studies.