DayTwo Announces Strategic Investment by Longliv Ventures, a Member of CK Hutchison Holdings Group, Cathay Innovation and by Samsung NEXT
TEL AVIV, Israel and SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 3, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- DayTwo, the only microbiome human discovery platform with an actionable product in the market, has announced the addition of Longliv Ventures, a member of CK Hutchison Holdings Group, the global VC partnership Cathay Innovation, and Samsung NEXT as strategic investors and partners.
Longliv Ventures, Cathay Innovation and Samsung NEXT will participate in the company's Series B financing, announced in June of this year. Longliv Ventures will invest $5 million USD in this round and Dr. Dan Eldar, Managing Director at Longliv Ventures, will join the company's board of directors.
"DayTwo is the only evidence-based, actionable, microbiome platform in the market today. We are in a privileged position to leverage our first-rate scientific experience, clinical trials in Israel and the United States as well as tens of thousands of customers, and proven business models with providers, employers, and payers," said Lihi Segal, CEO and Founder of DayTwo. "This deep and broad foundation, coupled with the recent financing round, enables DayTwo to address the large and pressing clinical need of diabetes management and to bring food-as-medicine to global markets for people with type 2 and prediabetes. The partnerships with Longliv ventures and Samsung NEXT catalyze DayTwo's go-to-market initiatives in Europe and Asia."
"DayTwo is a pioneering company setting itself to grow and provide value at the intersection of major health needs, by leveraging an understanding of the human microbiome; by shifting towards personalized medicine and diet, and by providing an effective diabetes management strategy and platform. In a short period of time, DayTwo was able to bring to market an exciting new approach to nutrition for diabetics, pre-diabetics and wellness seekers, based on findings of ground-breaking research," said Dr. Dan Eldar, Managing Director of Longliv Ventures.
"Longliv Ventures targets companies that are on a mission to develop and nourish solutions that will augment and eventually revolutionize the way people manage their health and wellness", said David Gordon, Head of Investments for Longliv Ventures. "Such solutions could benefit from the CK Hutchison Holdings global footprint which includes the A.S. Watson Group, the world's largest international health and beauty retailer. With a potential reach of 2.4 billion customers via more than 15,200 stores operating under 12 retail brands in 25 markets, and through a world-renowned online sales operation, we can provide early stage companies with a stepping stone to global success."
"DayTwo is successfully using fused health metrics, expert medical knowledge, and cutting-edge machine-learning algorithms within a competitive business model. We believe this is a winning combination and a promising example of the revolution in healthcare which Cathay Innovation fosters. Artificial Intelligence is and will be reshaping many industries but the impact of new approaches and technologies is already a reality in Healthcare. In the US for instance, the FDA had been approving deep technology usage for diagnosis and recommendations for over two years. Through our ecosystem of resources, offices and participations in Europe, the US, and China we will make sure people benefit from this increased access to personalised, medical-grade advice," said Jacky Abitbol, Partner at Cathay Innovation.
"DayTwo has struck a balance between building the world's largest database for full shotgun sequencing of the gut microbiome while also successfully scaling its first product for the diabetic population. We are proud to have joined DayTwo's journey to tackle some of the world's most common diseases with its science-based 'food-as-medicine' approach," said Yonatan Machado, Director at Samsung NEXT Ventures.
DayTwo's food-as-medicine approach is based on the original research conducted by Professors Eran Segal, Ph.D., and Eran Elinav, M.D., Ph.D. at The Weizmann Institute of Science, published in the journal Cell, in 2015. The Cell paper demonstrates how the gut microbiome, in conjunction with other clinical and personal parameters, can enable personalized dietary interventions that can successfully balance post-meal glucose response.
Founded in 2015, DayTwo has offices in Tel Aviv and San Francisco, with 85 employees. The company completed the first half of 2019 with tens of thousands of consumers, hundreds of providers in the DayTwo network of clinical professionals, as well as employers and plans that became members of its network. DayTwo also launched a strategic partnership with the world's second largest HMO, Clalit Health Services, which now offers the DayTwo glycemic control solution to its 4.5 million members.
DayTwo continues to conduct ongoing research with clinical institutional partners including the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Israel Diabetes Association, Joslin Diabetes Center, Janssen, a Pharmaceutical Company of Johnson & Johnson, and the Mayo Clinic. DayTwo also depends on the counsel of its most respectable scientific advisory board composed of specialists from Tufts School of Nutrition, the University of California, San Francisco, and the Weizmann Institute of Science. DayTwo has published papers based on their science, results and work pioneering food-as-medicine offerings in Cell, Cell Metabolism, Nature, JAMA, and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
For more information about DayTwo, visit https://www.daytwo.com/.
About DayTwo
DayTwo's microbiome platform is built upon the largest full-shotgun database of gut-microbiome profiles worldwide. Professors Eran Segal, who holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Genetics from Stanford University, and Immunologist Eran Elinav, M.D., Ph.D. at The Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.
Founded in 2015, DayTwo has raised $48 million to date from aMoon, Ofek Ventures, Seventure Partners, the Mayo Clinic, Johnson & Johnson, and Marius Nacht. DayTwo has offices in Tel Aviv, Israel and San Francisco Bay Area.
About Longliv Ventures:
Established in 2018, Longliv Ventures L.P. ("Longliv Ventures") is a consumer oriented digital health fund that focuses on investments in early stage ventures that seek to address significant health and wellness issues capable of producing global impact. Longliv Ventures is a member of CK Hutchison Holdings Group ("CKHH"). With over 300,000 employees in over 50 countries across the world, CKHH is among the largest companies listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The Group has a pivotal role in healthcare through its A.S. Watson Division, the world's largest international Health and Beauty retailer with over 15,200 stores in 25 markets in Europe and Asia – from Germany, the United Kingdom and Russia to China, Hong Kong, Indonesia and the Philippines. Among its world-renowned brands are Superdrug, Rossmann, Kruidvat and Watsons.
With a potential reach to 2.4 billion customers and with connection to more than 130 million loyalty members and a world-renowned online sales operation, Longliv Ventures can provide early stage companies with a stepping stone to global success. Examples of domains of interest include point-of-care diagnostics and home testing, chronic condition management, treatment adherence, tele-medicine, pregnancy monitoring and allergen detection.
For more information about Longliv Ventures, please visit www.longliv-ventures.com
Contact:
David Gordon, Head of Investments, Longliv Ventures
davidg@longliv-ventures.com
About Cathay Innovation:
Cathay Innovation is a global venture capital partnership, created in affiliation with Cathay Capital. It was founded around the shared conviction that supporting innovation entrepreneurs by providing them with a platform bridging 3 continents – North America, Europe and China – constitutes a particularly powerful value-creation strategy. As a multi-stage fund, Cathay Innovation partners with visionary entrepreneurs, committed to driving change through technology. Such transformation is accelerated by leveraging Cathay Capital extensive network with corporates and solid experience in operational excellence. Cathay Innovation has offices in San Francisco, Paris, Beijing and Shanghai.
To learn more, please visit www.cathayinnovation.com or follow us on Twitter @Cathayinnov
Contact:
Yoann Besse, Citigate Dewe Rogerson
yoann.besse@citigatedewerogerson.com
+33-6-63-03-84-91
About Samsung NEXT:
Samsung NEXT builds, grows and scales transformative software and services to complement Samsung's global hardware footprint. A leading driver of Samsung's transformation into an integrated hardware and software company, Samsung NEXT combines product development, investment, M&A and partnerships under one roof. If you have an idea, we can help you turn it into a product. If you have a product, we can help you build and grow it. And if you are ready, we can help you scale.
To learn more, visit https://samsungnext.com/
Contact
Samsung NEXT
Beth Handoll, +1-415-535-8658
beth.handoll@samsungnext.com
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