Project Well, a new food-as-medicine marketplace designed to materially improve the lives of those suffering from diet sensitive chronic disease and food insecurity, announced today that it has raised seed investment financing from leading food systems, healthcare, and technology investors. Investors include S2G Ventures (S2G), Primetime Partners, Tom Scully, currently at Welsh Carson and former Administrator of CMS, and angel investors from Formation Capital.
Project Well connects health plans and their members, and at-risk provider groups and their patients, to a broad array of food vendors who supply tasty, nutritionally targeted, customized meals. By getting to know each individual member and their eating habits, the Project Well platform can provide highly personalized, superior food interventions to those that need it most. A simple, yet incredibly effective solution to improve health, slow the progression of chronic disease and reduce healthcare costs.
America faces a public health crisis that continues to grow unabated. In 2020, according to the CDC, there are 24 million Medicare Advantage members with 68% of those members suffering from chronic disease. By 2025, these numbers are expected to rise to 38 million and 80%. In the U.S., 90% of the total $3.5 trillion spent on health care can be linked to costs associated with treating chronic conditions. These conditions include heart disease, diabetes and obesity – all of which can be prevented, mitigated, or managed with a healthy diet.
"Project Well is a Win-Win-Win solution," said Lauren Driscoll, Founder and CEO of Project Well and veteran healthcare executive. "Payors can reduce medical costs and differentiate themselves in a competitive market. Members and patients also 'win' as they can optimize their health and wellbeing. And food producers and vendors also 'win' as they gain access to a broad segment of the population that has been slow to adopt and successfully navigate the e-commerce food market."
Project Well's initial pilots had unusually high levels of member engagement & satisfaction, resulting in a Net Promoter Score of +90. In a recent pilot program targeting congestive failure patients, 22 out of 25 survey respondents with late stage Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) either improved or remained stable and 93% of participants that screened positively for being at-risk of depression during the intake process showed improvement at the close of the program.
"I have known Lauren Driscoll for almost 25 years, since our early days at Oxford Health Plans. She has always been ahead of the curve, and is again here," said Tom Scully, General Partner at Welsh Carson. "Very specific food and dietary intervention is a hugely underdeveloped factor in improving the health of complex patients and lowering their health costs. Every at-risk plan knows it— and Project Well has the most developed plan I have seen to help these patients."
"There is evidence that clinically tailored meals can reduce emergency department use by 70% and hospital admissions by 52%. Project Well combines the widest choice in food with clinical support to drive impressive adoption rates." say Abby Levy, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Primetime Partners. "This personalized program is the only solution that deeply understands each member's relationship with food from culture, traditions, income, culinary knowledge, mobility and more - meeting them where they are in their journey to a healthier diet."
"We are delighted to have the support of world class investors from the fields of aging, health care and food technology," says founder, Lauren Driscoll. The primary use of proceeds from its seed round will be to expand commercialization and pilot efforts with health plan and medical group partners to address their members' most actionable and critical non-clinical needs. The company is working with major Medicare Advantage plan partners to provide a compelling platform to address these looming risks for the aging and increasingly chronically ill population.
"We are incredibly excited to support Project Well in their mission to make life-changing nutrition more accessible to the most vulnerable," said Sanjeev Krishnan, Managing Director at S2G Ventures. "As we continue to see a convergence between food and medicine, we are thrilled to partner with such an experienced executive and group of co-investors that reflect the opportunity in the market."
About Project Well
Project Well is the first smart, Food-as-Medicine market platform designed to drive lasting dietary change for health plan members. The platform unlocks the untapped potential of nutrition, by integrating clinically tailored meals and diet education into the health care payment and delivery system – thereby improving the health of patients and lowering health plan spend at scale.
Project Well's platform matches at-risk members with Registered Dietitian–vetted food solutions and leverages behavioral science to support lasting dietary change and, ultimately, improved health outcomes. Project Well procures high quality meal offerings personalized to members' tastes and circumstances and oversees the entire member experience from food education and selection to enjoyment in their home.
More information can be found at www.wellbetty.com or on LinkedIn.
