Vively.com.au, a metabolic wellness platform, has raised $1.5 million in an oversubscribed pre-Seed round led by Archangel Ventures.
Vively uses constant glucose monitoring via an arm patch to help people understand how their diet and lifestyle is affecting their metabolic health in real-time.
The funding will be used on product development and growth to capture the Asia Pacific market, which is estimated at $9 billion annually.
Cofounder and CEO Tim Veron launched the platform three months ago with Michael Pang and already the venture is producing $1 million in annualised revenue with almost 100% month-on-month growth.
Australia is in the grip of a chronic disease crisis, largely driven by unhealthy diets, sedentary lifestyles, poor sleep and chronic stress that lead to sub-optimal metabolic health.
“Vively has developed software that makes it easy to understand and act on your glucose data with medical-grade insights that are holistic and personalised for you,” he said.
By tracking glucose levels, user can see the effects that food, exercise, stress and sleep have on their blood sugar levels, and make adjustments to improve your health in real-time.
“Usually in Australia, you’d need an expert to be able to assess your metabolic health, which is expensive and time consuming for most people,” Veron said.
“In addition, laboratory based testing is point-in-time and not adaptive to the nuance of various common life events such as exercise, mental stress loads, carbohydrate loads and sleep quality and quantity.”
Vively Medical Director Dr Michelle Woolhouse said metabolic syndrome – a cluster of conditions that occur together, increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes – affects about 35% of Australians and includes many who suffer from sleep apnea and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.
“These numbers are not good, but the story may be much worse,” she said.
“The good news is, we are 100% in charge of our metabolic health and simply changing your lifestyle is the best medicine we know about. Everyone has a different ‘metabolic fingerprint’, so by tracking your glucose and your lifestyle, this program helps you to understand what works and what doesn’t for you.”
Vively has collected over 500,000 glucose readings in the last three months, and are seeing a higher-than-expected rate of potential metabolic dysfunction. More than 66% of users have an estimated Hba1c – a simple blood test that measures your average blood sugar levels – of 5.7% or greater, which would indicate that they have pre-diabetes or metabolic dysfunction.
Veron said that Vively’s evidenced-based, personalised and targeted diet and lifestyle-based interventions help users control their sugar levels in real-time.
“Given the festive season is upon us, understanding how your Christmas pudding or glass of champagne is impacting your metabolism can help you manage your overall health and may lead to better prevention of a whole range of common lifestyle related chronic diseases,” he said.