Viome Acquired Naring Health to Advance Its Personalized Nutrition and Health Solutions

Seattle-based Viome Life Sciences continues its mission to bring cutting-edge genomic testing into people’s homes, by acquiring Naring Health, a digital health and wellness company providing access to individualized clinical and molecular data to empower informed decisions.

After closing an impressive $86.5 million Series C funding round and forming a promising partnership with CVS, one of the largest pharmacy chains in the United States, Viome does not stop, aiming to redefine the way we approach personal wellness.

Naring Health and DiscernDX to help achieve the company’s goal

Viome Life Sciences, a longevity company committed to translating scientific advancements into actionable and individualized health solutions, announced November 2nd the acquisition of Naring Health, a digital health and wellness company providing access to individualized clinical and molecular data to empower informed decisions. Under Naring Health, Viome will also be acquiring DiscernDX, a company making regular health monitoring, early disease detection, and personalized care a reality for every individual, and Foodome, a company that identifies all bioactive compounds in every food and uses network science to understand the connection between diet, genetic pathways, and diseases.

“We’re entering a groundbreaking era of precision health, an era where every individual has the power to manage their unique nutritional needs effectively,” stated Viome founder & CEO Naveen Jain. “By acquiring entities whose visions align and complement ours, such as Naring Health, we’re advancing our commitment to making unprecedented health insights and actionable solutions increasingly attainable to all and with greater accuracy. We are driven by the goal to transform the paradigm of health through personalized nutrition, unveiling extraordinary insights that hold the key to preventing and reversing chronic diseases using food as medicine.”

Personalized health solutions with even more precise food and supplement recommendations

By combining resources, including key patents and intellectual property, Viome has the ability to further enhance its suite of personalized health solutions with even more precise food and supplement recommendations. As two leaders in the health industry, the strategic acquisition is helping usher in a new age of personalized nutrition. It will grant customers access to the most comprehensive insights into what is going on in their bodies and how they can address issues at the root cause with personalized and precise nutrition.

“We made the decision to invest in Naring Health because we believe in the power of personalized nutrition,” said Robbie Schwietzer, Khosla Ventures’ Operating Partner and Naring’s Interim CEO. “Joining forces with Viome amplifies its impact and accelerates its mission to provide individuals with tailored insights that improve health span and life span. Together, we’re charting a new course towards a healthier future for all.”

Both Viome and Naring Health share a common goal of providing personalized wellness tools that enable food to be used as medicine. While their strengths lie in slightly different areas – Viome focusing on the microbiome and Naring Health on multi-omics – they now unite under a shared vision of transforming healthcare through advanced, personalized solutions that are backed by data and science

“For years, I’ve studied how bioactive compounds in food impact the expression of human genes and trigger chronic diseases,” said Dr. Albert-Laszlo Barabasi. “This partnership with Viome, a trailblazer in the world of precision nutrition, accelerates the industry by a decade and enables Viome users to benefit from this research in an actionable way. By integrating Viome’s technology with our research, we’re poised to unlock the intricate link between individual dietary patterns and health, setting us firmly on the path to preventing and reversing chronic diseases.”

The move followed the company’s sizable series C funding round

The acquisition comes after Viome’s latest funding announcement, in which the company successfully closed its $86.5 million Series C funding round, bringing its total raise to $175 million. Viome additionally expanded into the oral health space with two groundbreaking tests, Oral Health Intelligence Test for consumers, and Oral Health Pro with CancerDetect™ for dental professionals. Viome’s groundbreaking Gut Intelligence Test into 200 CVS locations nationwide. It will be the first-ever gut test available in the national retail chain both online and in-store, underscoring the test’s strong consumer demand and the need for health optimization tools. This news came off the heels of Viome’s Oral Health Solutions announcement last July which applied its holistic approach and proprietary RNA sequencing technology to usher in a new era of oral health with an emphasis on prevention and long-term care.

Major investors in the series C funding round included Khosla Ventures, Bold Capital, WRG Ventures, and other existing ones as well as new ones. The raise brought Viome’s total to $175M and is to be used to support research and development and retail expansion efforts. “We made the strategic decision to invest in Viome, recognizing the groundbreaking fusion of its one-of-a-kind RNA technology with state-of-the-art AI. Coupled with an unparalleled repository of biological data, this synergy doesn’t just hint at a revolution; it marks the dawn of a new era in healthcare. The promise here is staggering: the very prevention of an epidemic wave of chronic diseases, spanning mental, metabolic, cognitive, and digestive health,” said Robbie Schwietzer, Partner at Khosla Ventures. “Our partnership with Viome isn’t just an investment; it’s a commitment to medical innovation. We’re not merely excited; we’re inspired and resolved to continue supporting Viome as they sculpt the future with revolutionary products that will redefine the paradigms of health, from early-stage cancer diagnostics to personalized nutrition solutions that respond to the individual’s unique biological signature.”

Viome’s data-driven approach is highly individualized

Viome’s unique perspective on health goes against a one-size-fits-all diet and uses science to compute the optimal outcome for each consumer based on their unique human and microbial gene expressions. Today’s nutritional practices do not account for our biochemical individuality and are contributing to the onset and progression of many chronic diseases. Viome’s data-driven approach is highly individualized and doesn’t rely on generic nutritional guidelines that treat all humans as similar. Utilizing AI and advanced algorithms to analyze the world’s largest gene expression data from over 600,000 samples, Viome has developed at-home tests and custom-made health products to provide each individual with precise nutrition their body needs. This includes a supplement formula made unique to every single individual as well as a personalized biotic blend for gut health and personalized oral biotic lozenges, for oral microbiome health. And, if nowadays we can use technology to have a perfect smile, we should definitely use it to achieve better nutrition. 

Viome was founded in 2016 and is backed by a team of world-class industry experts, translational scientists, nutritionists, researchers, doctors, and advisors focused on a single mission: to improve health by delivering scientific breakthroughs that address the root causes of chronic diseases, cancer, and aging. HCW actually envisioned the company’s potential even way back in 2018, when it mentioned it as one of the two leading prebiotics companies.

Viome believes that by further understanding the way the microbiome interacts uniquely with every individual, it can empower individuals with insights and actionable recommendations that are needed to live a long and healthy life.