A Philadelphia food technology startup is striving to “democratize nutrition” by making affordable, healthy meals easily accessible in the form of cherry, orange and green apple-flavored cubes.
Meepo, founded in 2019, is the developer of MealCubes, which are gummy candies engineered to contain 420 calories, 25 grams of protein, 28 grams of healthy fat, 23 grams of complex carbohydrates, and 35 vitamins and minerals. That translates to the equivalent of four ounces of salmon, two cups of kale, one sweet potato and half an avocado, according to the company.
MealCubes are developed using a six-step proprietary process that replicates the compounds found in the real meal including the fiber, exact amino acid and micronutrient profiles, and type and quantity of fat and carbohydrates, said Meepo Co-Founder and CEO Matthew Elonis. Meepo’s technology also mimics normal meal digestion by wrapping a protein in a specific alginate, a type of acid, that breaks down MealCubes in the body over a few hours, Elonis said, as opposed to the roughly 30 minutes it takes for meal replacements like some bars or shakes to digest. An individual cube measures about 12 millimeters on each side, or slightly smaller than a standard die in a board game.
The biochemical process leaves consumers feeling as satiated as if they ate a regular meal, Elonis said. The Meepo co-founder is so confident in the technology that he opted to live on a 30-day diet of only MealCubes and black coffee while working out upwards of five times per week. He added that anecdotal consumer feedback generally indicates the MealCubes are filling, which Elonis also attributes to the cubes delivering calories in a solid form because humans “weren't really evolved to consume such high amounts of calories via liquid,” such as in meal replacement shakes.
Elonis, who previously operated an online meal delivery business called Keto Fridge, is partially self-funding the Meepo venture with funds made from selling off his original company, he said. Meepo also raised $400,000 in a pre-seed round in early 2020. A few months ago, it closed a $2 million capital raise backed by Pasaca Capital Inc., whose portfolio includes Innova Medical Group and Sweegen.
Meepo’s other co-founders are Vincent Francescangeli, previously of PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Andres Arrocha, a biochemical engineer who hails from Mexico and specializes in prototyping new sensors, foods and technologies and advising companies on novel food development.
Meepo is currently producing millions of MealCubes packets per month between manufacturing sites in California and Florida, with a focus on fulfilling long-term B2B contracts with government and health care entities, Elonis said. MealCubes can deliver lower cost nutrition to frontline workers, hospital patients and people in senior living facilities in the health care realm, he noted, and can be used for military service members deployed around the world or those involved in disaster relief efforts with public or private organizations.
Meepo is beginning to sample MealCubes to consumer-facing partners like gyms, nutrition stores, and natural grocery stores to target athletes and those interested in fitness, Elonis added. The company aims to debut MealCubes in those outlets in the first quarter of 2022, and is eyeing high-end gyms and retailers with a national presence.
This winter, MealCubes will be available via a subscription service on the company’s website, with meal packs ranging from $5 to $7. Additional target markets for MealCubes down the line include travelers — including those in space — and education entities, such as providing affordable, healthy meals to children in schools. It’s easy to criticize fast food chains that peddle unhealthy meals or question parents for feeding those foods to their kids, but ultimately the offerings are cheap, convenient and taste good, Elonis noted.
“It's just not good for us,” he said. “So I can't really be angry at the fast food companies until we actually build a solution that's better.”
As order volume increases and pandemic-related supply chain issues ease, Elonis said Meepo aims to lower the price of MealCubes to further increase accessibility.
Down the road Meepo looks to launch new meal forms using the same technology, such as puddings, to add variety for customers.
In the coming two years, the startup will look to debut Meepo 3D, an offering it's currently researching that involves using a 3D printer to create customized meals based on individual nutrition needs, Elonis said. To gauge those needs, Meepo would use saliva samples to analyze an individual's micronutrient, hormone and other nutrition levels and develop personalized MealCube offerings.
“We live in 2021 and we really don't know what's good for us. We all have different genetics, different life experiences, different habits, and we really don't know what our body is currently missing,” Elonis said. “So if we knew in live time, ‘Hey, our body's missing these exact nutrients,’ who knows what the effect would [be].”
