- January AI — the first metabolic health company that accurately predicts users’ glycemic response to over 16 million foods in its proprietary atlas — announced that it has raised $8.8 million in a new round of funding
January AI — the first metabolic health company that accurately predicts users’ glycemic response to over 16 million foods in its proprietary atlas — announced that it has raised $8.8 million in a new round of funding from several institutional and individual investors. Including this funding round, the company has raised a total of $21 million.
Felicis Ventures participated in the round along with HAND Capital and Marc Benioff. And they join existing seed investors AME Cloud Ventures and SignalFire along with YouTube Co-Founder Steve Chen, Sunshine Co-Founder Marissa Mayer, Grail Co-Founder and former Illumina CTO Mostafa Ronaghi, Home Care Assistance Chairman Lily Sarafan, and Oracle veteran Gary Kennedy.
The funding round will be used to fill key hires across product, engineering, and operations, and accelerate sign-ups for its complete metabolic health program Season of Me — which includes a telehealth screening with a licensed physician, 2 continuous glucose monitors (CGM), and a 90-day membership to the January app. And by giving wearers personalized insights on how diet, exercise, and sleep affect their blood sugar in real-time, Season of Me can help people across the diabetes spectrum build better habits towards living healthier lives.
Backed by 3 years of rigorous scientific research, January AI came out of stealth last summer with its algorithm poster at the American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions Conference — presenting its CGM prediction technology following a 1,000-person clinical study. And results showed that after 4 days of input, January’s proprietary algorithm learned an individualized model for each participant, enabling accurate prediction of glucose responses from foods logged. By predicting blood sugar “spikers,” offering lower glycemic load food alternatives, and recommending the precise amount of activity needed to bring down their glucose curve, in just 10 days, over 70% of participants improved their time-in-range or the amount of time their blood glucose remained within a healthy target zone.
January AI was founded in 2017 by veteran business executive Noosheen Hashemi and Director of Genomics and Personalized Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine Dr. Michael Snyder with the recognition that the epidemic of diabetes remains mostly unaddressed and that artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to provide personalized care at scale. And January AI is focused on helping the 122 million people on the diabetes spectrum through a multi-omic approach to science of health. By harnessing science, medicine, and machine learning, January’s advanced AI technology discovers how diabetes affects people differently and provides specific recommendations to move them to a healthier state.
KEY QUOTES:
“We’re thrilled to join with this incredible team of leaders in technology and venture to bring January AI to millions of Americans with or at risk of developing diabetes. We believe that every day can feel like January 1st—a day to take a fresh start towards better health—and that self-improvement is a team sport. Additionally, we’re excited to expand our footprint into enterprise, including pharma, where we already have a paying customer. With these partners and our growing team of advisors, we can unlock the power of personalized self-care for consumers wanting to take control of their health.”
— Noosheen Hashemi, Founder and CEO of January AI
“While other companies have made headway in understanding biometric sensor data—from heart rate and glucose monitors, for example—January AI has made progress in analyzing and predicting the effects of food consumption itself. Understanding what people eat is key to addressing metabolic health and chronic disease. Aggregating a food atlas of 16 million items, including local restaurant menus, January AI has used machine learning to create nutritional labels and glycemic index for everyday foods Americans eat, turning food into actionable health data. We look forward to seeing Noosheen Hashemi and the January AI team advance this idea, and leverage their growing network of scientists to help people prevent and manage the chronic diseases that are increasingly prevalent in our communities.”
— Aydin Senkut, Founder and Managing Partner at Felicis Ventures
“January’s unique technology has the potential to connect the dots for people on the diabetes spectrum—to better understand the power of food to hurt or to heal, and to give them greater control over their choices.”
— Jerry Yang, Founding Partner of AME Cloud Ventures, Co-Founder of Yahoo!
