Editor's Note
This week's big theme
Premium wellness real estate is booming in the UK.
At a time when pubs and restaurants are struggling, we keep seeing wellness expand, and a shift from gyms to health as a lifestyle.
Third Space is growing fast, with clubs sold out before they open. The Fifth launches its high performance members club this winter. And clubs like RecoHQ are leading the way with community-led recovery studios.
It seems hospitality isn't dying at all. It's evolving. People might not want to spend £100 down the pub on a Friday, but they'll happily spend it on a membership to a luxury wellness studio.
Traditional hospitality is evolving too, with hotels like Six Senses leading on wellness, and digital detox breaks becoming fashionable.
Which leads nicely into this week's podcast guest, Hector Hughes, the founder of Unplugged, who tells us why he steals every guest's phone for three days.
Industry News
Garmin acquires TrainingPeaks and TrainHeroic
Garmin has bought the coach-led training platforms TrainingPeaks and TrainHeroic, just days after launching its screen-free fitness tracker. It is a clear step towards one integrated platform, where a Garmin user can plan their training, run the sessions and track their recovery without leaving the ecosystem. (garmin.com)
Why it matters: Most people training seriously are drowning in subscriptions for different parts of their setup, stitching together rigid integrations just to see the full picture of their data. Garmin now owns both the hardware and the data experience, which very few companies can claim.
Proximie signs UC San Diego Health across 44 operating rooms
Proximie, the London company founded by reconstructive surgeon Nadine Hachach-Haram, has signed a multi-year deal with UC San Diego Health to deploy its software across 44 operating and procedure rooms at four hospitals. The two will also build a model trained on surgical video and workflow data. (businesswire.com)
Why it matters: Most of what happens in an operating theatre disappears the moment the operation ends, so nobody learns from it beyond the people in the room. Proximie is leading the way in training models that help surgeons prepare for, optimise and learn from each procedure at a scale never before possible.
Function Health secures $450m to scale preventive health platform
Function has taken $450m in growth financing from General Catalyst to accelerate customer acquisition. The company has been buying up companies across lab testing, medical imaging, at-home blood draws and supplements as it moves to build the most comprehensive offering in preventive health. (insider.fitt.co)
Why it matters: Most preventive health companies focus on a few core pillars. Function is positioning itself as the everything platform at an accessible price, and that is hard to compete with if you only own half of the picture.
Tramp opens £10m health and wellness club in Mayfair
Tramp Health has opened a £10,000 a year ultra premium wellness club. The core philosophy focuses on integration of training, recovery, diagnostics and nutrition rather than treating them as separate things, with a longevity doctor and AI platform building individualised protocols for every member. (robbreport.com)
Why it matters: Health is evolving as a category. A gym used to mean a £50 a month subscription to a room full of weights. People now expect a full end to end wellness experience, and will pay an exceptionally high price to get it.
Priory pilots HelloSelf's AI companion for therapy patients
Priory, the UK based mental health care provider, has started a pilot at two of its London sites giving outpatients an opt-in service that uses HelloSelf's AI companion to help remember, practise and reinforce what they have learnt between clinician-led therapy sessions. (healthtechdigital.com)
Why it matters: Reflecting on and practising what is learnt during therapy between sessions is shown to dramatically improve progress. A technology-enabled way to bridge the gap is likely to offer better patient outcomes than waiting a week for the next appointment.
Investment Updates
DITTO - the London company selling a clinically tested supplement for PMS and period pain, raised $6m in seed funding led by FoodLabs. (femtechinsider.com)
Qureight - the Cambridge company that uses AI to analyse lung and heart scans for pharma companies running clinical trials, raised £15m in Series B funding led by Molten Ventures. (uktech.news)
Flourish Health - the Virginia company that uses an AI care platform to coordinate in-home psychiatric treatment for children and young adults as an alternative to hospitalisation, raised $26m in Series A funding co-led by B Capital, F-Prime and Cherryrock Capital. (finsmes.com)
Healia - the Columbus company that tells employees they're on the wrong health insurance plan, moves them to a better one, and saves their employer money in the process, raised $14m in Series A funding led by 111° West Capital. (healiahealth.com)
Throne Science - the Austin company behind a sensor that clips onto a normal toilet and tracks gut health and hydration from what it sees, raised $10m in Series A funding led by Will Ventures. (businesswire.com)
The Health Stack Podcast
Episode #09 - Trailer
Hector Hughes, Founder of Unplugged
Hector is the founder of Unplugged, who have built more than 50 off-grid cabins around the UK where you padlock your phone in a box on arrival and get a map and a Nokia instead. He started the company after burning out in 2019 and coming back from a silent retreat in the Himalayas.
Roles Worth Knowing About
Senior Product Manager, Payments - Flo Health
London, hybrid
Flo is the period and pregnancy tracking app, past 500 million downloads. The role owns how people pay for the subscription across web, iOS and Android.
Clinical Lead - Accurx
London (Shoreditch), hybrid
Accurx builds the software most GP practices in England use to message patients, share test results and manage patient requests. The role carries clinical risk for everything Accurx ships, including the voice agent it is building for patient triage.
AI Engineer - Paloma Health
London Bridge, hybrid
Paloma runs NHS autism and ADHD assessments for children, cutting waits that used to stretch to years down to months. You would be a founding member of its AI team, building the pipelines that decide whether anything ships.
Senior AI Engineer - Healthtech-1
Stratford, East London, on site
Healthtech-1 builds patient registration software used by over a quarter of GP practices in England. The office sits inside a working GP practice, so you can walk downstairs and see the effect of what you built.
Principal Software Engineer - Phlo
Glasgow, hybrid
Phlo is a digital pharmacy that delivers NHS and private prescriptions to your door. The role owns the hardest parts of the platform and coaches the engineers around it. Applications close on 7 August.
That's it for Issue #17.
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