WillAgri
The American startup Viome is attracting investors. It has collected $25 million in the space of a week and has $45 million in the bank (it hopes to increase this to $100 million soon). What is the key to this success? Viome is riding the food customisation wave, which is all the rage on the other side of the pond. So what does Viome actually do? It collects stool samples from its clients and uses its platform to analyse them to detect how microbes interact with the food in our guts. How our microbiomes (the entire collection of microorganisms, bacteria, protozoa and fungi living in equilibrium in our guts) process foods is allegedly a good indicator of illnesses we might develop. Building on this insight, Viome uses artificial intelligence to recommend a personalised diet. According to the American company, there is no universally recommended diet because not everybody’s microbiome processes any one particular food in the same way. Naveen Jain, the founder of Viome, claims to be able to help clients avoid a range of illnesses including diabetes, irritable bowel, and even insomnia or depression. Many scientists are sceptical, but that hasn’t stopped Viome from carrying out clinical trials in partnership with certain hospitals.
Source: The Spoon