Corporate weight-loss startup Retrofit is finishing out the year with three times as many customers as last year and a healthy supply of cash from investors.
Following up an $8 million round last winter, Retrofit Inc. has just tacked on an additional $5 million in investments from Cambia Health Solutions and Draper Fisher Jurveston. That positions the company to continue expanding in the corporate weight-loss market, its spokeswoman said. Current corporate customers include Salesforce.com and Google.
Retrofit says its approach addresses the three key components of weight loss: nutrition, fitness and mindset. Users are given a Fitbit activity tracker and wireless scale to monitor their activity, sleep and weight. That data streams into an online dashboard and to their personal wellness team comprising a dietitian, exercise physiologist and behavior coach.
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The wellness team consults with users via Skype up to three times a month, depending on which plan the user has. A newer feature of the plan is the Nutrition Navigator app, which encourages users to log what they eat with photos and to consider why they made the choices they did.
Retrofit says it has seen great results with its program — 90 percent of users are losing weight and employers are saving thousands of dollars on healthcare costs, the company claims. But it’s working in a competitive space alongside more traditional programs like Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig, as well as tech-enabled corporate wellness programs like Keas and RedBrick Health.
Chicago-based Retrofit has raised $15.7 million so far from a group of investors that also includes Correlation Ventures, Hyde Park Angels, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, Chicago Ventures and Firestarter Fund. Jeff Hyman, a three-time Internet service startup founder, started the company in 2011.
[Image credit: retrofitme.com]
