- Los Angeles-based childhood food allergy prevention company Ready, Set Food! announced it raised $2.2 million in funding
Ready, Set Food! — a Los Angeles-based childhood food allergy prevention company founded by a team of physicians, leading medical experts, and parents — announced that it raised $2.2 million in pre-seed funding. And notable investors include Amplify.LA and PLG Ventures along with local angels Adam Miller of Cornerstone OnDemand and David Rogier of MasterClass.
“We are so excited at the strong level of interest we received from our local VC community and are extremely proud of the work we have done over the last year since our launch,” said Ready, Set, Food! co-founder and CEO Daniel Zakowski. “These funds are being used to further our mission of helping prevent ~200k infants every year in the US from developing life-threatening food allergies.”
Prior to launching in May 2018, Ready, Set Food! conducted more than a year of R&D and has secured the support of over 300 pediatricians who recommend its solution and gave over 5,000 families the best chance at an allergy-free future.
With the pre-seed funds, Ready, Set, Food! is committed to its mission of giving all babies the gift of food freedom. And the company is also going to use the funding to expand its all-new corporate wellness program — which allows family-minded companies like Snapchat to provide Ready, Set, Food! to its new parents as an employee benefit. The funding will also enable Ready, Set Food! to accelerate growth especially with its upcoming Blue Shield pilot program for insurance reimbursement.
“Having personally used Ready, Set, Food! with my daughter, I know how easy they make it to help prevent 80% of childhood food allergies, and their patent-pending approach will help create long term differentiation. It’s one of those great times where a great business opportunity combines with an incredibly important mission,” added Amplify Vice President Amanda Schutzbank.
The idea for Ready, Set, Food! came together after Abe — the son of co-founder Dr. Andrew Leitner — suffered an extreme allergic reaction to peanuts at six months of age. And Abe’s parents learned that he was also allergic to eggs and dairy. While Abe’s parents were well aware of the need to introduce allergens to him, they did not know that many studies advised introducing these allergens as early as four months (well before he was able to eat solids). Following that experience, Dr. Leitner has been passionate about turning Abe’s struggle into a mission to help families prevent food allergies before they start and to create a solution that allows parents to introduce allergens while they are still breast or bottle feeding.
