Imagine if you had a service that could plan your meals, track your diet and ALSO deliver groceries based on that diet.
MassChallenge startup Lighter might be ahead of you.
Launched in 2015, the startup is partnering with Mass General Hospital and American Association of Retired Persons AARP to bridge the gap between dietary advice and action. As the "Food as Medicine" movement gathers steam with nutrition therapy, Lighter wants to be the bridge between doctor-recommended nutrition advice and dietary action.
"There are no solutions now that helps health care providers guide their patients on healthy eating," said Lighter CEO, Alexis Fox, whose raison d'être to start the company was -- "food can harm or heal, and hence can have a profound impact."
Lighter works like this: Health care providers partner with the company to set the nutrition recommendation for their patients. The startup then comes up with a personalized diet based on those specifications, creates a meal plan with recipes and finally, delivers groceries to the doorstep.
The startup will launch its product, Lighter Pro, this spring and has already established partnerships with health care providers across the globe including U.K., Switzerland and Australia.
Excited for the promise of the product, Fox, however, noted that Lighter had a different mission when it first launched four years ago. While teaching a leadership course at Emerson College, Fox met Micah Risk, who then worked at the World Health Organization. The pair knew they wanted to work in food and nutrition and that escalated to them collaborating to create a product that would give people access to diets of acclaimed artists, celebrities and top-class chefs while customizing it based on the needs of a particular user.
"We saw that we could integrate that with grocery deliveries too," said Fox.
The company partners with Amazon Fresh, Instacart and Peapod to deliver groceries. Lighter's platform can tailor meal plans to serve a family, and scale it for special occasions like events and holidays. Users can also specify any allergies they might have.
According to the company's website, Lighter's white label software is used by "expert authors, filmmakers, wellness experts, world-class athletes, celebrities and other thought leaders currently white label our software and services for their unique audiences."
A little more internet digging would reveal that Beyonce's 22-Day vegan diet is powered by Lighter.
The women-run company employs over 20 people and just relocated its office to the Seaport area from Cambridge. The company raised $4 million in a seed round and its investors include Stray Dog Capital, New Crop Capital, Green Monday Ventures and a group of angel investors.
