Digbi Health startup raises $5.4m to reverse obesity and associated inflammatory digestive and skin 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.

Ranjan Sinha, Founder and CEO, Digbi Health: "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. 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. Having the financial support of Accel will enable us to execute our vision even more rapidly and broadly with consumers, payers, doctors and employers."  

Radhika Ananth, Vice President, Accel: "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." 

digbihealth.com