A healthcare startup that's tackling irritable bowel syndrome and other stomach-related health issues raised a seed round of funding to grow its business.
Chicago startup metaMe Health announced Monday that it raised $3.8 million in a round led by LionBird Ventures, a Tel Aviv and Chicago-based venture firm that backs digital health startups. Silicon Valley-based Hemi Ventures also participated in the round.
Founded in 2016 by Daniel Bernstein, metaMe has developed a product called Regulora, a tool that uses digital therapeutics to treat gastrointestinal conditions. The startup's software creates a behavior-focused treatment that's intended to address the cognitive, behavioral and affective drivers of IBS, the company says. metaMe Health takes a non-pharmaceutical approach to treating IBS by offering seven automated digital sessions that are administered over 3 months.
The startup said it will use the funding to initiate a controlled trial to study the efficacy and safety of Regulora in IBS patients, as well as fund its pre-commercialization efforts.
"We’re thrilled that all of the efforts and hard work of the metaMe Health team are beginning to produce tangible results," metaMe Health CEO Tim Rudolphi said in a statement. "Closing on this initial round of seed funding provides further validation of metaMe’s efforts in developing an all-digital platform for the treatment of IBS."
In the U.S., an estimated 10-15 percent of the adult population suffers from IBS symptoms, the majority of which are treated with pharmaceuticals. metaMe aims to have the first FDA-approved prescription digital therapeutic for the treatment of IBS.
metaMe previously received a $243,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to assess the quality of its all-digital platform on IBS patients. It also won the 2019 Sandoz Healthcare Access Challenge, a global competition for digital healthcare startups.
