Campbell Soup Invests $32M in Personalized Nutrition Startup

October 26, 2016

Campbell Soup Company has become the sole investor in San Francisco-based Habit – a startup that compiles a nutritional action plan based on an individual’s unique biology, metabolism, and personal goals, and then cooks and delivers fresh, personalized meals to each customer’s doorstep.

Campbell Soup is committing $32 million to the startup which is launching a beta test program in January 2017. Customers will be sent at-home test kits that will measure more than 60 biomarkers including DNA variations. The results will be analyzed and used to build a personalized diet plan that will be carried out and delivered to each user’s door.

Habit Founder, Neil Grimmer, who is also the founder of organic baby food company, Plum Organics, explains that Habit was born from personal experience. “For a period of about six years I was so focused on bringing the best, healthy food to kids, I lost sight of my own health,” says Grimmer. “Too much work, too much food and mega-dosing of caffeine, combined with not enough sleep, healthy food, or exercise was a damaging, but all too common lifestyle.”

“I did genetic tests. I did blood work. I analyzed how my body processed all kinds of foods,” explains Grimmer. “With the help of physicians and nutritionists, I started tuning into my body’s signals that had been picked up from all the tests I had done.”

“My personal wake-up-call led me to the epiphany that the method of my personal health transformation should be made available to everyone across the nation. The catch was, none of this was easy, or inexpensive, or accessible. This needed to change.”

Campbell’s sees Habit’s business model as the innovative future of food and a way to position itself to best benefit from consumer trends calling for healthier foods to match their healthier lifestyles.

“The entire food industry is being transformed by the fusion of food, well-being and technology,” said Denise Morrison, Campbell’s president and CEO.

“Habit is well positioned in this wired for well-being space and poised to lead the personalized nutrition category,” Morrison said. “Campbell’s investment is part of our broader efforts to define the future of food, which requires fresh thinking, new models of innovation, smart external development and venture investing to create an ecosystem of innovative partners.”

This investment is another indicator of Campbell’s shift toward the ‘better for you’ food space. The company has launched its Garden Fresh division, including the Bolthouse Farms line of fruit and vegetable based smoothies and Garden Fresh Gourmet, which Campbell acquired for $213 million last year.

In June 2015, the company announced a pledge to distance itself from the use of high fructose corn syrup by the end of fiscal year 2017 and to eliminate all artificial flavors and colors from its North American product portfolio by the end of fiscal year 2018.

It also announced that in the coming years it will work to use only antibiotic-free chicken in its products.

“Look around you. We are all different shapes, sizes, ages, genders and we all have different lifestyles. It’s just common sense to reject the idea that we all need the same food, in the same amounts, at the same time,” says Grimmer.

“This is our first step. We have a long road ahead of us to make it accessible to all, but we believe that today is a huge first milestone in getting there.”

Lynda Kiernan

 

 

 

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