Noom, the nutrition and chronic condition management-focused health tech startup app, has got $58 million in investment led by Sequoia Capital on May 6. Aglae Ventures, Samsung Ventures, and a number of other individual investors including Whats App co-founder Jan Koum, DoorDash cofounder Tony Xu, and Oscar Health cofounder Scooter Braun also participated in the funding.
Boost to Noom’s weight loss program
Noom was co-founded by Korean Saeju Jeong, along with Ukrainian tech Artem Petakov in 2008. Noom, which was earlier called WorkSmart Lab, has raised a total of $144.7 million since its foundation. The startup has its headquarters in New York with offices in Seoul and Tokyo. Noom’s Korean founder Saeju Jeong is a serial entrepreneur, who also sits on South Korea’s Ministry of Science & Technology’s steering committee and the board of Chonnam Hospital, South Korea’s largest private hospital.
The startup is known for its direct-to-consumer weight loss signature product called the Noom Weight Loss Coach. The Noom users are paired with a dedicated human health coach based on their lifestyle and preferences and given guidance for weight loss. The startup uses Artificial Intelligence to help personalize the experience for its users. Besides its weight loss product, Noom has also developed specialised products including an app focused on diabetes and hypertension.
New funding to be used for expansion
The company expects to use the new funding to grow its team and build their customer service capabilities.
“We were able to achieve so much with just 55 people in our New York City headquarters and our community of wonderful coaches,” Saeju Jeong, CEO and co-founder of Noom, said in a media statement. “This influx of capital will help us hire more Noomers — passionate people who want to use their business and technical skills to make personalized coaching accessible to everyone in the world.”
