Why we are backing Balance: the first clinic to treat obesity the way it should be done
TL;DR:
We are very excited to partner up with Jesús Rebollo and announce our last partnership with Balance: the first digital clinic to treat obesity in a holistic way, providing patients with access to emotional, physical and pharmacological support in their personal journey to long-term sustainable weight loss.
When we elaborated our thesis in Digital Health 2 years ago, and were looking at direct to patients solutions, it was clear that there were few key factors that we would keep top of mind: a) big and growing need b) a significant segment of the population that was not being served properly from the public health system and private service providers c) a willingness to pay from the patient d) the chance to leverage technology to increase accessibility and deliver a significantly better product/service. This has already led us to place two bets in mental health for kids-young adults and in menopause respectively, in our portfolio ventures Miinta and Domma. And we have been looking for a while to build something in obesity as it came up at the top of that list for several reasons.
The Opportunity in details:
Obesity currently represents one of the biggest health challenges globally. It affects 16% of the European population and the growth rate of the condition has been astonishing: in the 1980s less than 5% was clinically obese (BMI >30), in 1997 the WHO declared it a global epidemic, and it is expected to reach 30% of the European population by 2050. Only in Spain, obesity impacts 7.7m people, and its direct and indirect costs represent 9,7% (€8.9B) of the total public system budget every year.
When it comes to treatment, it’s important to recognize that obesity comes from multiple causes and leads to an intricate set of consequences and possible comorbidity: reduced mobility, and higher risk of cardiovascular diseases, reproductive issues, diabetes, depression, among others.
Unfortunately, available solutions have done a very poor job at tackling this so far. On one hand, patients are receiving almost no support from the public health system. On the other hand, the weight loss industry has traditionally offered either an infinite series of fad diets or very expensive and invasive solutions such as bariatric surgery and similar.
In the last years, the industry has been undergoing a massive disruption with the introduction of GLP-1 drugs that allow patients to obtain up to 10-15% body weight loss. The market is forecasted to reach +$100B globally by 2030 and had lead Novo Nordisk to become the most valuable European company in 2023.
But we know there is no silver bullet when it comes to health, and that is why in order to maintain long term sustainable benefits, and minimize side effects, the patient needs to tackle the issue in a multifactorial way. This is where we think technology can play a key role in orchestrating access to all the different professionals needed for a long term sustainable weight loss.
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As a bonus point, obesity still carries a lot of stigma and guilt, and we see this as a great opportunity to create a transparent, reliable voice in an industry that is full of cheap claims and fad diets.
After validating this with tens of conversations with patients, endocrinologists, therapists and industry experts, it was clear that medication itself was not enough to drive long term sustainable behaviour change and that we were facing a massive opportunity.
Introduce Balance:
Balance is the first digital clinic to treat obesity that gives patients access to a personalized plan and everything they need to treat their condition. More specifically, patients can find in the same place therapists, endocrinologists, health coaches and personal trainers. Initial traction has been exciting to see and what Jesús and the team have been able to build in such short amount of time has been remarkable. We met Jesús while he was building his first company in the health tech space, and we knew we wanted to do something together at some point. When we got back in touch and saw the opportunity we were facing in building the next category creator in treating obesity in Southern Europe and LATAM, everything fell into place.
We are incredibly excited to be supporting him and the entire team on their mission. Beyond his professional trajectory that took him to lead in the past high-growth teams as a Managing Director at Job and Talent, Just Eat; Jesús's passion and genuine willingness to change how weight management is treated and perceived, are the key traits that excite and inspire to work with Balance.
We are very much looking forward to supporting them in building what is coming next and to finally provide obese patients with the solution they deserve.
Sources:
Director of Global Solution Sales I Insight to Value? - Successfully adapted by e.g. Roche, MetLife, Charles River Lab, Preply
1 个月Congrats to the Balance and Antai team! Great to see so many happy faces!