30th Nov 2020

MMC backs new digital health startup, Habitual

We are excited to back Habitual, the UK’s first fully digital diabetes prevention and reversal programme.

Habitual was founded by Dr Ian Braithwaite and Napala Pratini in September 2019 after they met delivering diabetes reversal programmes for the NHS. It was then that they realised the potential to completely transform how we think about diabetes and other related diseases.

Their three-part programme was built in collaboration with specialists from Harvard Medical School, the University of Cambridge, and Stanford University and focuses on total diet replacement, personalised habit-change, and ongoing support to achieve sustained disease reversal and long-term weight maintenance.

With five million people expected to be diagnosed with diabetes in the UK by 2025 and the NHS spending £315 every second on type 2 diabetes, Habitual is on a mission to revolutionise the way we manage type 2 diabetes, aiming to reverse the condition for millions of people through its entirely digitally programme.

Research has shown that type 2 diabetes is reversible in the majority of patients, but this fact has largely been overlooked, with healthcare systems hooked on more traditional pharmaceutical interventions such as pills and injections. Habitual wants to radically change this approach by combining digital therapeutics with a nutritionally-complete food product, an unprecedented combination of two clinically-validated tools that hold the potential to prevent and reverse lifestyle disease across the globe.

Speaking on the investment, CEO and co-founder Dr. Ian Braithwaite said:

“While working as a doctor, I saw firsthand the devastating complications of type 2 diabetes - from strokes to heart attacks to blindness. For the majority of patients, pills are not solving the problem. We now have strong clinical evidence that remission can be the goal for most patients. Sadly, with the NHS at a breaking point, it is not in a place to deliver intensive remission programs to the 4.2 million type 2 diabetics in the UK. We started Habitual, the first solely digital diabetes remission program, to scale this research to anyone who needs it, no matter where or who they are. We are already seeing astounding results, with all patients stopping or reducing their medications and on their way towards living diabetes-free.”

We're delighted to be supporting Ian and Napala alongside our friends at Seedcamp, as well as angel investors we have worked with before including Roger Hassan, the COO at Tier Mobility, and Stephen Bourke, the co-founder of Echo Pharmacy, a former MMC portfolio company.

“This fundraise, from two of London’s top early stage funds, is about more than growth capital—it validates strong investor conviction around moving healthcare systems towards a completely new paradigm for diabetes treatment.” Dr. Ian Braithwaite, CEO and cofounder, Habitual

Read more on the story via Startups Magazine.

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