Video by Digbi Health
Digbi Health, a leader in clinically proven genetics and gut-microbiome based digital care program for managing obesity and associated inflammatory digestive, skin and cardiometabolic illnesses, announced it has completed $5.4 million in Series A funding led by Accel, with participation from Wisdom LLP and the company's Seed round backers Ocean Azul Partners and Seraph Venture. The investment brings the total funding raised by the company to $8.5 million since being founded in 2018, and will help the company to deepen its lead in evidence-based, clinically-proven and actionable science of combining genetics, the gut microbiome and clinical risk markers to deliver precision care for chronic inflammatory illnesses.
With data from over 1,000 members who accessed the program through their insurance payer, 70 percent experienced reduced symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), and chronic pain, 60 percent demonstrated improvement in inflammatory skin conditions and 70 percent overweight and obese members lost weight - an indication that inflammatory polychronic conditions can be ameliorated through precision digital care.
Proceeds from the financing will be used to forge additional payer, employer and Third-party administrator (TPA) partnerships, along with expanding the company's product offering, engineering, gut microbiome and data science teams in the US and India. In addition, Digbi Health will add to its existing clinical research partners - West Virginia University Medicine, UC Irvine Medical School, while investing in an FDA approval pathway for Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) targeting functional bowel disorder.
This funding builds on an exceptional year for Digbi, which saw a 200% growth in new members, employer customers, executive appointments, and market momentum in the areas of digestive health, personalized food as medicine, and managing obesity for COVID risk reduction.
Digbi Health's approach to food as a prescription and lifestyle as medicine recognizes every individual has a unique gut microbiome, genetics and lifestyle that determines the right combination of food, exercise and sleep to manage chronic illnesses.
For insurance payers, ACOs, we offer the first value-based, payer validated, personalized population health platform for obesity and polychronic inflammatory illnesses - digestive, skin and chronic pain.
For employers, Digbi Health offers for the first time, a personalized digital care platform for a diverse workforce, whose disease risk varies significantly by gender and ethnicity because they are rooted in the person's genetic and gut microbiome.
"We are just starting to demonstrate the superior therapeutic power of combining gut-microbiome, genetics with lifestyle and clinical risk markers to recommend personalized, convenient, tiny changes in food and lifestyle that has remarkable impact on living a disease-free and full life," says Digbi Health's Founder and CEO, Ranjan Sinha. "For the first time people who suffer from two or more chronic illnesses do not have to struggle under the yoke of one-size-fits-all diet or deal with multiple care programs to deal with obesity and inflammatory illnesses. We use powerful science to get to the root cause of the illness and cure it from the inside out versus just masking or managing it like other programs," added Sinha. "Having the financial support of Accel will enable us to execute our vision even more rapidly and broadly – with consumers, payers, doctors and employers."
"Digbi Health's mission-driven culture and outcome-driven approach are spurring positive behavior change in the community and enabling the community members to lead a healthy and disease-free life. We believe the Digbi team is capable of creating and driving digital innovations to support carriers, self-insured employers, and healthcare systems to sustain the rapidly growing healthcare needs," said Radhika Ananth, Vice President at Accel.