- Big Sky Health announced it raised $8 million in Series A funding and revealed the launch of Zero Plus
Big Sky Health — the creators of one of the most popular and highly rated fasting apps called Zero — announced it launched Zero Plus, a premium version of its service that provides adaptive fasting plans and science-backed content for helping guide users on their health journeys.
Zero Plus is now available globally at an introductory subscription price of $9.99 per month or $49.99 per year at launch with a free one-week trial.
And Big Sky Health also revealed it raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Greycroft. Before this round of funding, Big Sky Health had raised $4.2 million in funding from True Ventures, Trinity Ventures, and individual angel investors including Tony Gonzalez, Matt Mullenweg, and Mark Pincus. True Ventures and Trinity Ventures also joined this round.
Zero recorded over 1.5 billion hours of fasting across nearly 100 million completed fasts since the service launched in 2017. And the company also saw accelerated growth with active users increased 500% since 2019 and 37 million fasts already recorded in 2020.
Along with the current offerings of Zero, Zero Plus provides expert resources and custom fasting plans that evolve with users over time and equips them with knowledge and motivation to stay on track. Plus the goal is to help scale the expertise of their team of doctors and researchers led by Chief Medical Officer Dr. Peter Attia.
Along with Zero, Big Sky Health is known for its alcohol tracker called Less and the meditation & breathing app called Oak. And Big Sky Health’s overall goal is to remove roadblocks and motivate people to reach their fasting goals through confidence, courage, celebration, and shared experiences. The company has a user base of around 7.5 million.
Maser is a serial entrepreneur who has been focused on longevity since well before being diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkins lymphoma over five years ago. And Maser had an interest in the potential role of fasting as a life-extending measure when his friends encouraged him to try it while undergoing cancer treatments, according to TechCrunch.
Maser credits an autologous bone marrow transplant for saving his life and he believed fasting made more sense for his condition compared to taking an experimental drug.
Maser previously sold a coaching app called Fitstar to Fitbit for about $25 million. Then he had acquired Zero from his friend Kevin Rose in 2018. Maser previously worked with Rose at Digg.
Key Quotes:
“We’ve built a strong relationship with our community, and we know that each fasting journey is unique. Zero Plus is for those who are seeking deeper insights and further customization. Premium subscribers or not, our community will always be our priority. We are putting the funding from Greycroft to work immediately to accelerate our mission, expand our team, and extend our leadership position in the category.”
– Mike Maser, CEO of Big Sky Health
“I’m incredibly excited about what we’ve built with Zero Plus. We’re providing well-researched, curated, tailored information that can scale to millions who are interested in optimizing their health and longevity by way of a fasting practice. I’ve seen how fasting has worked for some of my patients, which is why it was so important to me to grow the reliable tools that are out there for others. Today, we’re doing just that with the launch of Zero Plus.”
– Dr. Peter Attia, co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Zero
“Consumer health and wellness is a theme we care deeply about at Greycroft and have invested behind for the last five years. I started out as an avid user of Zero and saw first-hand how it positively affected people’s lives. When Mike pitched us on his vision for the company, our team quickly became enamored with Mike’s personal journey, the incredible traction of the product, and the massive market potential of this business.”
– Teddy Citrin, Principal at Greycroft
