New participation

Habitual (UK)

Investment theme: Smart chronic care management

Habitual has developed a diabetes reversal intervention consisting of a combination of behavior change content, a digital therapist, and an evidence-based nutritional plan to help individuals achieve reversal of diabetes type 2 and maintain a long-term healthier lifestyle.

The core Habitual program lasts for 16 weeks, the first 12 of which involve transitioning to a low-calorie, nutritionally complete diet to induce at least 15% body weight loss. Alongside the diet, patients proceed through an intensive behavior change curriculum, delivered on a fully automated basis through the Habitual app. After 12 weeks, patients slowly reintroduce food and develop a sustainable nutritional and exercise plan, all along guided by the app. Thereafter patients continue to build healthy habits and maintain weight loss by engaging with the Habitual app and, in some cases, opting for maintenance packages of TDR (total diet replacement) meals.

Habitual is on a mission to help millions of patients achieve and sustain remission from type 2 diabetes. The intervention is based on the DiRECT trial and results in weight loss surpass several world-leading diabetes reversal trials with a 16.3kg average weight loss after 6 months.

Impact

Based on the initial evidence delivered, we expect that the company will be able to show that diabetes remission is possible entirely digitally and at scale, and can deliver the same or even better health outcomes as the DiRECT trial at a fraction of the cost.