BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AVA, a personalized, data-driven nutritional coaching solution currently in private beta, today announced that it closed a $3 million seed funding round led by DCM Ventures, with participation from Khosla Ventures and Eric Schmidt's Innovation Endeavors, among others. The funding enables continued development of AVA’s technology and expansion of its nutritional science team.
“AVA solves one of the most frustrating aspects of healthy eating -- tracking and managing what you eat -- by providing the first auto calorie estimation tool combining image and human recognition,” said AVA’s CEO and co-founder, Ian Brady. "We're putting intelligent systems in the hands of skilled nutritionists to provide users with highly personalized eating programs based on individual preferences, accessibility to food and most importantly, nutritional goals.”
“We’re excited about the early traction we’ve seen with AVA and the level of expertise this team brings to what is clearly a growing concern in this country and an enormous market opportunity,” remarked David Chao, Co-Founder and General Partner at DCM Ventures. “AVA is offering a highly scalable, personalized solution for the growing number of people working to improve their dietary habits.”
”There’s a pressing need to automate and optimize human expertise, particularly in the health and wellness space,” said Vinod Khosla, founder and managing partner, Khosla Ventures. "We believe AVA is part of that next-generation thinking, with technology that amplifies the potential of highly skilled experts to make important nutritional support more widely available to consumers.”
AVA is led by a team of seasoned entrepreneurs, nutritional experts and innovators in data science, including previous co-founders of SoFi, The Grommet, Monster.com and senior executives from Fiksu, Santander Bank and The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
ABOUT AVA
AVA is an intelligent eating platform that’s transforming the way people think about food and nutritional health. We’ve brought together some of the best talent in nutrition science and technology, along with top tier investors from Silicon Valley to redesign nutritional decision making. Founded in 2016 and currently in private beta, AVA is backed by DCM Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors. For more information, please visit www.EatWithAVA.com, follow @eatwithava or contact media@eatwithava.com.
ABOUT DCM VENTURES
DCM Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Beijing, and Tokyo with more than $3 billion under management. DCM has invested in more than 280 technology companies across the United States and Asia, and provides hands-on operational guidance and a global network of business and financial resources. DCM has backed industry leading companies such as 51job (NASDAQ: JOBS), 58.com (NYSE: WUBA), About.com (Acquired by the NY Times Company), BitAuto (NYSE: BITA), Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR), Dangdang (NYSE: DANG), eDreams (Acquired by TA), Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT), Foundry Networks (NASDAQ: FDRY), Kabu.com (TSE: 8703), Luxin (SZSE: 002565), PGP Corporation (Acquired by Symantec), Pokelabo (Acquired by Gree), Renren (NYSE: RENN), SandForce (Acquired by LSI), Sling Media (Acquired by EchoStar), SMIC (NYSE: SMI), StarFlyer (TSE: 9206), VanceInfo (NYSE: VIT, currently NYSE: PACT), and Vipshop (NYSE: VIPS). DCM also invested in exciting, upcoming startups such as Analogix, Arrayent, Bill.com, BitTorrent, Kakao, Happy Elements, SoFi, Tuniu, and Youxinpai.
