In its first year since launch, weight loss telehealth platform Calibrate raised $100 million in capital funding from investors.
The series B funding round was co-led by Founders Fund and Tiger Global, both new investors, and had participation from Optum Ventures and existing investors. In addition to the funding, Brian Singerman, a partner at Founders Fund, will join Calibrate’s board of directors.
“We know that investing in preventative care works intuitively,” Calibrate’s founder and CEO Isabelle Kenyon said. “And so, year one at Calibrate was really about proving through outcomes and results that that makes sense, and that equation makes sense.”
This latest funding round means the company has raised a total of $127.6 million in cumulative funding.
Entering its second year of business, Calibrate looks to build out its enterprise business in addition to its already established consumer-facing business.
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Calibrate focuses on metabolic health through its one-year, weight loss reset program that includes FDA-approved medication, doctor visits and app-based coaching and curriculum. With the weight loss goal of 10%, results have shown Calibrate members report an average annual body weight loss of 14%.
In the U.S., obesity prevalence was 42.4% in 2017-18, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Calibrate is the only business in the sector that is focused on biology, Kenyon said.
“It goes back to the first part of our mission, which is that there is an incredible stigma around this category,” Kenyon said. “We didn’t think about obesity as a chronic disease until 2014 when the AMA [American Medical Association] voted to categorize it as a chronic disease. We didn’t set standards of care and protocols for treating it.”
Calibrate’s cohort of doctors looks to metabolic medications that mimic the effect of glucagon-like peptides-1s, which are hormones produced by your gut to regulate metabolic function.
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“We know that improving your underlying metabolic health sets you up for long-term, sustained weight loss of 10% to 15%,” Kenyon said. “And that’s not telling you that you can lose as much weight by whenever you want by restricting calories, which is what everyone else tells you.”
The company’s most recent development expanded consumer access to medications like Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, a weight loss injection recently approved by the FDA.
Calibrate’s proprietary integrated vertical pharmacy engine will help members obtain medications like Wegovy.
Kenyon said Calibrate's business grows as consumers become more concerned about their underlying health. Coupled with the rise of telemedicine amid the pandemic, the platform has attracted new users and investors.
“We live in a game-changing moment for medicine,” Kenyon said.