Limbo is tackling weight problems with a pair of wearables and many years of physiology

In latest years there was a flurry of startup exercise aimed toward commercializing blood glucose biosensors — aka, wearable tech that was initially developed for diabetes administration. These steady glucose screens (CGMs) transmit close to real-time knowledge on glucose ranges, offering prompt suggestions (through a companion cell app) on how the physique metabolizes completely different meals or responds to way of life selections round train and sleep.

The biowearables, that are semi-invasive — sometimes worn on the arm with a sensing filament inserted slightly below the pores and skin — had been initially developed for diabetics and pre-diabetics who’ve a medical want to trace their blood sugar due to insulin resistance. But the startup gambit is that opening entry to CGMs extra typically can supply broad well being utility by giving all kinds of individuals a dynamic window onto what’s happening with their metabolism.

Some of those startups are promoting the concept ‘biohacking’ by monitoring blood glucose may help individuals optimize athletic efficiency, or configure a nutritious diet and way of life — together with weight administration. But the startup technique has typically mounted on opening up the ‘data window’ first as a tactic to construct product utility whereas they purchase (and construction) customers’ metabolic and way of life knowledge — monitoring glucose responses to meals and way of life inputs and, they hope, recognizing constructive and unfavourable patterns that they’ll use to synthesize a health or wholesome way of life program.

Limbo, a New York, London and Cork-based startup which is asserting a $6M seed elevate as we speak, is on this rising pack commercializing CGM tech — in its case constructing a subscription weight administration enterprise to focus on the weight problems disaster. But it claims to be bringing a definite strategy with a product that’s not only a data-mining work in progress; somewhat, they are saying, this system is predicated on some three many years of analysis undertaken by one of many co-founders — chief analysis officer, Tony Martin, who’s a physiologist and coach.

“[Martin] essentially worked out the secret of how blood glucose regulated the body and how energy in the body is mediated through blood glucose,” says co-founder and CEO, Rurik Bradbury, discussing the startup in a name with TechCrunch. “How if you control it in a certain way then you can have very dramatic weight loss results — based on biodata.”

Martin will not be affiliated with any analysis establishments, nor has he revealed any scientific papers on his work so it’s personal analysis — and outcomes he was in a position to receive utilizing this personal methodology along with his personal purchasers — that Limbo is drawing on for its product.

“The big breakthrough came over the last 5-6 years when CGMs came out… which allowed him to test a number of hypotheses,” explains Bradbury. “Both on himself and on his weight reduction purchasers. And what he discovered was a variety of patterns and a variety of results which he may replicate to do with the stability of various macronutrients basically, and the way the physique can regulate itself should you scale back carbs and sugars.

“There’s nothing hugely secret about that — about what’s essentially a Keto[ogenic diet] type program. There are many, many different variants of it and what he did was work out the right balance for people on a more individualized basis so it could be implemented as a program with a CGM to steer them in real time.”

“Now we’ve got — kind of — the recipe for how to make this work for people as a platform as opposed to a person by person system,” he provides.

Limbo’s different co-founder — Pat Phelan, whose title could also be acquainted to long-time TechCrunch readers as he exited his ecommerce fraud safety startup Trustev to TransUnion for $44M again in 2015 — has additionally put himself by this system.

Indeed, the inspiration for Limbo started with Phelan’s private weight reduction journey — after years of jetsetting startup life had not been sort to his well being. And it was in in search of assist to handle his weight problems drawback that he met Martin who prompt he attempt his ‘homebrew’ blood glucose monitoring methodology with a CGMv — after which Phelan’s success with the regime (which he discusses in this video on the startup’s website) led to the trio of founders coming collectively to ascertain a startup to productize Martin’s program (with Phelan and Bradbury bringing the tech expertise gleaned from years working in startups).

Limbo was based in fall 2020 — so it’s very a lot a pandemic well being tech startup, with the primary personal beta customers beginning on this system on the finish of 2020.

Target customers are individuals trying to lose 10-15% of their physique weight, per Bradbury. While typical prospects up to now are 35-55 in age vary.

The crew doesn’t have any efficacy research revealed quantifying the impression of the burden loss program by, for instance, evaluating Martin’s methodology to different weight administration approaches. But Bradbury argues early outcomes converse for themselves — with members seeing a mean weigh lack of 12% after three months of use. (Phelan himself misplaced 36kg/81 kilos over 9 months utilizing the prototype.)

The 12% stat was based mostly on an preliminary paying cohort of fifty customers. Limbo now has round 2,000, per Bradbury, who says they’re hoping to have “tens of thousand” signed up over the approaching 12 months.

The program is a subscription service — costing £1,300 for 3 months’ entry, so it’s positively premium stage pricing.

Connected {hardware}

As effectively as a provide of CGM sensors to trace their blood glucose, Limbo members are despatched two further units: A wearable wristband that tracks a spread of well being knowledge (together with coronary heart charge, steps, pores and skin and physique temperature, blood oxygen); and a wise scale which might measure physique fats and muscle mass in numerous areas of the physique — so it’s triangulating a spread of indicators in an effort to assess the healthiness (or in any other case) of the person’s food plan and way of life; and to trace their progress in the direction of their weight objectives.

“We started with an off the shelf piece of tech [for the wristband]. But we have a customized one built to our specs,” says Bradbury, discussing its {hardware} combine. “We have the one who used to run Apple in Asia — Rory Sexton — on our board, and he was one of many first traders. And he took an interest since you’ve most likely seen the rumors that Apple is trying so as to add blood glucose to [Apple] Watches. But it’s a really tough factor. We’ve additionally checked out this ourselves. And there’s lot of constraints there so far as how a lot energy it might take and the way correct it’s — I feel it may be somewhat manner off.

“But he got interested in that and we did an Apple Watch integration but the challenge with that and all the other tools out there — Fitbit and so on — is that their data resolution’s quite low. So [with our custom hardware] we’re looking every second or minute at these data points. [Whereas] Apple Watch and other wristbands tend to sample every few minutes to save power because the battery life is tricky.”

Limbo’s sensible scale can be custom-made somewhat than off-the-shelf equipment — and Bradbury says it’s larger finish than client sensible scales (which might undergo from poor accuracy). But he additionally says there’s much less want for prime decision knowledge for the size (vs the wristband) because it’s largely used to trace progress over time, not for dynamic suggestions on meals and so on.

“We’re looking at a gradual — over the course of 3-6 months — period of shifting body fat percentage,” he says of the size. “Obviously that usually comes down. That’s the main goal of the program. So we’re looking for a shift over time. We’re not looking for a precise, exact moment in time measurements. We’re not training, say, boxers for a fight where every ounce counts.”

The core interface for Limbo’s program is after all a cell app — which visualizes the person’s blood glucose stage (through a plotted line), monitoring adjustments constantly; and delivers suggestions and nudges to members (through push messages).

Limbo says it’s utilizing a mix of AI-powered evaluation and human coaches taking a look at customers’ knowledge in an effort to encourage constructive behavioural adjustments, through suggestions and nudges — with the overarching aim of steering customers in the direction of consuming a more healthy, balanced food plan and away from consuming meals that spike their blood sugar. So the push is to chop again on easy sugars (carbs, processed meals and so on).

The person has to do solely restricted knowledge logging themselves. They’re requested to snap an image of no matter they’re consuming to log their meals consumption, with an non-compulsory textual content area so as to add extra particulars. But Bradbury says including additional element isn’t required — as a result of all of the linked {hardware} allows them to depend on this monitoring of the person’s organic indicators to find out what post-meal suggestions to supply.

So whereas the app won’t actually know what that darkish beverage you’re consuming is — or, if it seems like a cup of tea, what number of sugars you may need slipped into it — the info gained’t lie. If the drink accommodates unhealthy ranges of sugar that spike your glucose the app will choose up that response within the CGM knowledge and nudge you to drink one thing much less sugary subsequent time.

So the person will get continuous, dynamic suggestions to assist them change their food plan for the higher.

“It’s a really interesting issue because it’s both psychological and it’s data,” says Bradbury, discussing the significance of the psychological ingredient. “You can present individuals knowledge — you may inform them stuff til you’re blue within the face however that’s completely different from having a psychological impact to make them behave differently. So the nudges are nearly like additional pushes on prime of the info. So if somebody spikes their blood sugar it’ll push a message saying what simply occurred? Essentially you may’t cheat on this program.

“One of the most important points with different diets is compliance. That individuals — quote — overlook that they had that muffin. And nobody’s the wiser apart from them. Whereas you may’t cheat on Limbo. There’s automated sensing if one thing occurred. So there’s interventions like that the place the member is aware of they’re being watched and so they behave accordingly. You can’t pull a quick one and sneak one thing previous the system. And secondly there are academic interventions — comparable to the appropriate stability of carbs and sugars and proteins and fat to eat to get to your aim.

“So that might be ‘this contained too many carbs’, ‘try to reduce sugar content in drinks’, that type of thing. Another one might be more positive: ‘Add more protein to the next meal’ or do something along those lines.”

“The idea is a coach on your arm that watches you 24/7 and steers you in the right direction,” he provides.

But don’t we already know that consuming sugary processed meals is dangerous and results in weight acquire, and maintaining a healthy diet entire, recent meals is nice for us? Why do we’d like an app to inform us this?

“If knowledge were enough to get someone across the finish line — we all know these things technically — then there wouldn’t be an obesity crisis. But the hard thing is that firstly a lot of people don’t know exactly what carbs and sugars are and the impact of highly processed foods which are extremely bioavailable — which spike you very quickly and directly after eating them. So there’s a lot of people who don’t really have a clear picture of what food does to them,” he suggests.

“Secondly we’ve been served myths for decades or centuries. People think that a sweet piece of fruit is good for you — they’ve been told it’s good for you. And they’ve taken it for granted. When a glass of orange juice is a cup of sugar. So these pervasive myths throw people off course. And certainly it’s the willpower thing — if you have a coach who’s watching you 24/7, who’s holding you accountable, steering you in the right direction, educating you on what’s actually happening to you inside your body it’s a very powerful crutch to help people get places.”

Myth busting with out advertising and marketing

While the first focus of Limbo’s intervention at present is round meals, vitamin and food plan, Bradbury notes the app will even nudge customers to take some low depth train — comparable to a submit meal stroll — as one other tactic to “flatten the curve” (aka get glucose stage again into the goal zone). And he says they’re planning to place extra give attention to how exercise impacts blood glucose as they proceed growing the product.

“If you eat something that has too high carb and sugar content the app will often pop up and say now would be a good time to take a [low intensity exercise] walk — so it’s not about sending people to the gym and spin class and so on. It’s much more about a smaller, more manageable amounts of exercise that complement the food choices,” he says of the present Limbo expertise.

“One of the big lies that have been sold to people is that you have to go to the gym and sweat your way out of extra weight. It’s very, very hard to exercise off a poor diet,” he provides. “Or an imbalance of energy coming into the body that is expended. So most of the nudges are about food and diet.”

The precedence for the seed funding is product growth. “We haven’t really spent any money on marketing and we’ve let things spread by word of mouth because I think people are quite mistrustful of marketing for anything to do with diets and food — it’s a space where there’s so much snake oil sold and dodgy businesses so we’re basically just showcasing what people have done or the weight they’ve lost with this and having them spread the word themselves,” he tells us.

“So rather than spend lots of money on marketing we’re putting that into the AI, the analytics and the product side — so we’re building out teams to make the product broader. There’s lots of things we can do more on in terms of sleep and exercise. Lots of the focus is on food but they all interact with each other… so we’re building out an experience to showcase to members how those things interact in a visual way.”

Limbo can be working in the direction of a US launch within the second half of subsequent 12 months, per Bradbury.

Obesity is after all a world drawback so the crew sees big potential for scaling, whereas cautioning that they don’t need to develop so rapidly they lose “the quality of individualized advice”, as Bradbury places it.  (For a way of scale, Limbo’s crew is at present 18 people who find themselves supporting round 2k members.)

On the competitors entrance, whereas there are a rising variety of CGM gamers in search of to tempt customers with a glimpse of their metabolic well being — certainly, even CGM maker Abbott is itself moving into the sport — Bradbury argues Limbo’s strategy of productizing an current weight reduction program as an app (somewhat than attempting to develop a technique off of CGM knowledge) offers it an edge.

Hence he additionally argues that Limbo’s competitors is nearer to a extra radical weight problems intervention — like gastric bypass surgical procedure — than what different startups are providing.

That stated, US startup January AI additionally has lots of analysis underpinning its food-response centered program, whereas India’s Healthify — which is because of launch a premium CGM providing within the US subsequent 12 months — already has years of health knowledge beneath its belt (and the latter’s Pro providing equally combines CGM, sensible scale plus in-app teaching), to call two. So Limbo definitely isn’t the one solid-looking CGM weight reduction sport on the town.

Asked about its pricing technique — which is a serious mark-up on most CGM rivals — Bradbury once more says it’s a mirrored image of the confirmed program and accessible strategy it’s providing.

“As far as we’ve seen so far all of the other companies started with the idea of well what if we could give CGMs to everyone? And then we’ll look at the data and see what we can find,” he says. “So we took the other strategy… We’ve already carried out the 30 years analysis beforehand so we all know what occurs when somebody wears a CGM, we all know easy methods to steer them into higher decisions.

“So while we look similar to some other CGM companies we’re starting from a very different position. We’re implementing a pre-existing, prescriptive program — do this, do that, do this, and you will lose weight. So that’s a very big difference in terms of the experience of the program — and people will, I think, pay for results.”

Aside from premium pricing, there’s the problem of convincing customers to stay a sensor of their arm. Wearing a CGM can look daunting, given it’s a semi-invasive sensor that requires each pricking your pores and skin and residing with a filament in your arm for weeks at a time, however Bradbury says the crew hasn’t — up to now — had an issue getting individuals to get cozy with biowearables.

He suggests goal prospects are in order that motivated to attain their weight reduction objectives — and so uninterested in attempting diets which might be depressing and haven’t helped them — that they’re joyful to attempt one thing completely different the place they get to see knowledge and monitor their outcomes, even when it means getting snug with firing a gadget into their arm each two weeks.

Still, the primary 2,000 or so Limbo members could also be particularly motivated attributable to repeat failure to shift weight different methods. So it is going to be fascinating to see whether or not its early adopters are outliers in being really easy for it to onboard, i.e. owing to having cussed weight points — and whether or not broader scaling will probably be tougher.

Limbo’s price-point is definitely one arduous restrict.

On the opposite hand, the lure of real-time well being knowledge is undoubtedly highly effective — and if its methodology of bite-sized insights plus wraparound help which does the arduous work by translating generally complicated metabolic indicators into easy actions individuals can take to enhance their existence then it’s simple to think about massive urge for food for a wise however easy food plan device.

“A lot of people start the program and it’s not for 3-4 weeks that their blood sugar ever gets into the standard zone — and that’s because for the 10-15 years prior they were eating carbs and sugars so often and so much that their body systems were beaten down and overwhelmed and they were constantly fighting to lower the sugar but with insulin resistance and so on they couldn’t do it,” says Bradbury of Limbo’s expertise with early members. ” But after 3-4 weeks with an intense [effort] in pushing you’ll discover that that member will get into the ‘blue’ for the primary time.

“What the system really is is letting people conscientiously engage with their bodies — and that’s something that’s almost impossible with food because you can’t just put your finger on your pulse and measure your blood glucose… So if we can visualize this for people and coach them on what they see it can have a big effect.”

“It’s a virtuous cycle we try to set up for them,” he provides. “You’ll see a bad result if you have a[n unhealthy] snack and then you’ll know that’s going to happen. So, over time, people unwind those snacking habits. It’s also the effect of them seeing what is happening inside their body. You can eat a cookie or a muffin or something and you can ignore it. But when you see it in front of you in the app — this spike happening and the crash afterwards — it’s a very different thing [vs the traditional experience of dieting] in terms of a feedback cycle, a feedback loop to change your decision next time.”

Limbo’s seed spherical is led by Hoxton Ventures. Other backers embrace (the previous NBA basketball participant) Shaquille O’Neal, Seedcamp, (former Apple exec) Rory Sexton, (rugby participant) Jamie Heaslip, and co-founders at a variety of tech corporations together with Intercom, PCH International, Yelp, Voxpro, and Web Summit.