nutrition
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The $7.3 Billion Company You Can't Buy Stock In
Two friends from Michigan turned a biodegradable cleaner and a handshake into the world's biggest direct-selling company. Seven decades later, Amway still refuses to sell a single share.
Ian Pinner Has Spent 26 Years Learning How Food Moves
Seventeen roles, every region, one company. Ian Pinner's route from wheat trading to ADM's nutrition business shows what happens when a career is built by learning the whole system.
The Health Company Hiding in Your Kitchen, Your Lab and Under Your Skin
Abbott built a $44.3 billion business by showing up everywhere health becomes measurable - from a breakfast shake to a glucose curve to a repaired heart valve. Its breadth is the strategy, and the complication.
The Diet That Invented Group Therapy Now Writes Prescriptions
It taught a generation to count points and lean on each other. Then a weekly shot changed the math - so WeightWatchers went to the doctor.
Factor_
Factor built a sizable business by shrinking dinner to a two-minute microwave job. Now the HelloFresh-owned brand is testing whether the same refrigerated tray can travel beyond the subscription box - into offices, campuses, sports partnerships and Target aisles.
Unilever
The 96-year-old owner of Dove, Hellmann's and Knorr just cut its ice cream loose and bet everything on 30 brands. Inside the biggest reset in modern consumer goods.
Fitia
Fitia is an AI-powered nutrition tracking and meal planning app built by two childhood friends from Peru. It turns the daily grind of counting calories into a personalized plan: users log food by photo, voice, text, or barcode, and Fitia adapts meal plans, macros, and grocery lists to their goals and food preferences. Backed by Y Combinator (S21), it has grown to more than 10 million users across 150+ countries and outranks incumbents like MyFitnessPal in downloads across Spain and much of Latin America.
UFIT Health, Fitness & Sports
UFIT is Singapore's largest independently owned health, fitness and sports community, combining personal training, group classes, physiotherapy, sports medicine, nutrition, podiatry and corporate wellbeing under one integrated roof. Founded in 2011 as an outdoor bootcamp in Fort Canning Park, it now runs multidisciplinary hubs across the city where coaches and clinicians collaborate through its 'Circle of Care' model to treat everyday clients like athletes in their own lives.
Berry Street
Berry Street is a New York-based digital health company that connects patients with registered dietitians for insurance-covered, virtual nutrition therapy while giving those dietitians an AI-enabled 'business-in-a-box' to run independent practices. Founded in 2023 by Noah Kotlove and Jesse Rose, the platform pairs a consumer marketplace - where most clients pay $0 out of pocket - with back-office tooling that handles insurance credentialing, claims, documentation and patient communication. It works with a network of more than 1,000 dietitians and 1,250-plus insurance plans, and raised a $50 million Series B in early 2025.
Culina Health
Culina Health is a virtual nutrition care company founded in 2020 by registered dietitians Vanessa Rissetto and Tamar Samuels. It pairs patients with credentialed registered dietitians for one-on-one, insurance-covered nutrition therapy delivered via telehealth across all 50 states. The company blends evidence-based clinical care with culturally affirming, multilingual support to treat conditions ranging from diabetes and heart disease to GI disorders and eating disorders, while partnering with major insurers, Medicare, and employers to make expert nutrition care accessible.
Helaina
Helaina is a New York-based biotechnology company using precision fermentation to produce human-equivalent bioactive proteins. Its first commercial product, effera, is a human-identical lactoferrin made in yeast that matches the amino acid sequence of the protein found in mother's milk. Founded in 2019 by food scientist Laura Katz, Helaina sells effera as a B2B ingredient to consumer wellness and supplement brands, targeting women's health, gut health, active nutrition and healthy aging. The company has raised roughly $84 million in equity funding, including a $45 million Series B in 2024.
Performance Kitchen | Food Is Medicine®
Performance Kitchen | Food Is Medicine® is an Austin, Texas company that produces chef-crafted, dietitian-approved Medically Tailored Meals designed to help manage chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and renal disease. Founded in 2011 as a healthy consumer food brand sold in more than 10,000 retail stores, the company pivoted to lead the Food Is Medicine movement, delivering ready-to-eat meals that are increasingly paid for by health insurers and delivered directly to members' homes. Led by Chairman and CEO Mark Walker, a CPA and founder of athlete-backed Dugout Ventures, Performance Kitchen operates nationwide production and distribution reaching roughly 98% of the U.S.
Laura Katz
Laura Katz is the founder and CEO of Helaina, a New York biotech company that uses precision fermentation to produce human-identical bioactive proteins. Its first product, effera, is the world's first commercially available human lactoferrin made through yeast fermentation. A food scientist by training and once NYU's youngest adjunct professor in Food Science, Katz started the company in 2019 from her Lower East Side kitchen after hearing a podcast about the black market for breast milk. She has raised more than $80 million to move Helaina from research into a commercial ingredient business.
Noah Kotlove
Noah Kotlove is the co-founder and CEO of Berry Street, a New York-based telehealth platform that connects patients with insurance-covered registered dietitians and gives independent RDs the software to run their practices. He launched Berry Street in 2023 with Jesse Rose after his own experience with a dietitian led to sustained results where fad diets had not. Before Berry Street, Kotlove built Sobrietysoft, an addiction recovery app that grew to more than six million users, and worked as a senior innovation consultant at Accenture after graduating from Wharton. In February 2025 Berry Street raised a $50M Series B led by Northzone, with Sofina, FJ Labs, the founder of Revolut, the co-founders of Spring Health and Grow Therapy, and the CEO of Found also participating.
Rony Sellam
Rony Sellam is the CEO of InsideTracker, a Cambridge, Massachusetts based personalized-health company that uses blood biomarkers, DNA and lifestyle data to give consumers actionable recommendations for extending healthspan. A former Deloitte consultant from France by way of Geneva and a longtime healthcare IT executive, he has run InsideTracker for over a decade and helped push the company past 100,000 members and into partnerships with Oura and Fitness SF.
Vanessa Rissetto
Vanessa Rissetto is a registered dietitian nutritionist and the co-founder and CEO of Culina Health, a virtual, insurance-covered nutrition care company she started with fellow dietitian Tamar Samuels in 2020. A Fordham history major turned NYU marketing grad turned Mount Sinai senior dietitian, she ran the dietetic internship program at NYU before building Culina Health into a network of about 90 dietitians that has served more than 10,000 patients. In December 2024 she raised a $7.9 million Series A led by Healthworx, the venture arm of CareFirst. She is a frequent nutrition voice on the Today Show and in Vogue, The New York Times and Bon Appetit, and has been recognized by Goldman Sachs, Inc., Essence and NPR.
Zaya Care
Zaya Care is a New York-based healthcare company building the largest network of in-network maternal and wellness specialists in the United States. It negotiates insurance contracts on behalf of independent practitioners - pelvic floor therapists, lactation consultants, dietitians, mental health therapists and acupuncturists - and handles credentialing, eligibility and billing so those providers can accept insurance without the administrative burden or financial risk of doing it alone. Inspired by the comprehensive European model of maternity care, Zaya gives small practices the leverage and efficiency of a large health system while letting them stay independent, and gives patients affordable, whole-person care beyond the standard OB-GYN visit.
ACTIVZ
ACTIVZ is a West Jordan, Utah-based health and wellness company that bills itself as the first direct-selling brand built around epigenetics - the idea that lifestyle and nutrition can influence how genes express themselves. Founded in 2017 by David Brown and Ryan Thompson, the company sells supplements (LINQ, AIRO, Optimend) and an anti-aging skincare line through a distributor network paired with an omnichannel e-commerce model. It launched first in Spanish-speaking Mexico before expanding to the US, Peru, Japan and beyond.
Ora Organic
Ora Organic is an Austin-based direct-to-consumer wellness brand making plant-based, USDA Organic supplements - vegan protein powders, greens, probiotics, and vitamins - built around clean, third-party-tested ingredients with no synthetic additives. Founded in 2014 and later featured on Shark Tank, it grew from a founder's kitchen-table idea into a multi-product catalog spanning gut health, hormones, recovery, brain health, and skin.
Matt Barnard
Matt Barnard is the cofounder and CEO of one.bio, a Sacramento biotechnology company turning plant fiber into odorless, tasteless nutrients that can be dosed into everyday food to reshape the gut microbiome. A seventh-generation Wisconsin farmer turned technology operator, he first became known as the cofounder and CEO of Plenty, the SoftBank-backed indoor vertical farming unicorn. He now applies the same obsession - control what people eat, control their health - to fiber science spun out of UC Davis.
WellTheory
WellTheory is a virtual autoimmune care platform founded in 2020 by Ellen Rudolph, Claire Rudolph, and Wallace Torres — all personally affected by autoimmune disease. The company pairs licensed registered dietitians and board-certified health coaches with advanced diagnostic testing to help the 50+ million Americans living with autoimmune conditions reduce symptoms and reclaim their lives. Members follow a 12-month personalized program covering nutrition, sleep, stress, and movement. Clinical outcomes show 92% of members reduce symptoms within four weeks, 85% cut ER visits within 16 months, and average annual healthcare savings of $5,181 per patient. Backed by $33.4M in total funding led by General Catalyst, WellTheory serves both individual members ($175/month) and self-insured employers and health plans like Sentara Health Plans.
Sara Cullen
Sara Cullen is the founder and CEO of GEM, a Los Angeles wellness company that reinvented the daily multivitamin as a bite-sized chew made from real, whole-food ingredients. After a personal health slump in her late twenties left her disillusioned with the synthetic-filler vitamin aisle, the Oregon farm kid and Cornell graduate built the product she could not find. She validated it inside a private Facebook group of women before raising venture capital, selling more than 20 million bites, and turning 'food is medicine' into a real business.
Cheers
Cheers (formerly Thrive+) is a Houston-based alcohol-related health and wellness company built around dihydromyricetin (DHM), a botanical extract studied for supporting the liver and reducing the after-effects of drinking. Founded by Brooks Powell after he encountered DHM research as a Princeton undergraduate, Cheers sells a line of science-backed supplements - Restore, Relief, Hydrate, Protect and Multi - direct-to-consumer, on Amazon, and in tens of thousands of retail locations. The company holds a U.S. patent on its formulation, has served more than a million customers, and frames its mission as helping people enjoy alcohol responsibly while protecting long-term health.
mindbodygreen
mindbodygreen is an independent lifestyle media and wellness company that pairs science-backed editorial content - articles, newsletters, podcasts and certification courses - with a direct-to-consumer line of supplements and personal care products. Founded in 2009 after a back injury pushed Jason Wachob toward yoga, the company has grown into one of the largest independent health-and-wellness platforms, reaching millions of monthly readers with a 360-degree approach that weaves together the mental, physical, spiritual, emotional and environmental sides of well-being.
Parsley Health
Parsley Health is a functional-medicine telehealth provider founded in 2016 by physician Dr. Robin Berzin. It pairs in-depth diagnostics and biomarker testing with longitudinal, team-based care - doctors plus health coaches - to find and treat the root causes of chronic conditions like gut, autoimmune, hormonal, metabolic and mental-health issues, rather than just managing symptoms. Originally a cash-pay membership model with clinics in New York and Los Angeles, Parsley has shifted to a virtual-first national service and in 2026 became the first functional-medicine provider to accept insurance in-network nationwide, putting its care within reach of roughly 150 million insured Americans.
one.bio
one.bio is a Sacramento biotechnology company that releases short-chain plant fibers and makes them flavorless, odorless, colorless and water-soluble so they can be added to food and drinks at high doses without changing taste or texture. Spun out of UC Davis, it pairs a fiber-mapping knowledgebase called the Glycopedia with a proprietary depolymerization process to turn long-chain plant carbohydrates - including agricultural byproducts - into bioactive fibers that feed the microbiome and support metabolic and immune health. The company raised a $27M Series A in December 2024 and in early 2026 launched its discovery platform, its first clinically validated ingredient (one.bio 01) and a consumer brand, GoodVice.
Sami Inkinen
Sami Inkinen is a Finnish-born, Stanford-trained entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Virta Health, a company on a mission to reverse metabolic disease in one billion people through nutrition, technology, and AI. He earlier co-founded the real estate marketplace Trulia, taking it public in 2012 before its merger with Zillow. A self-described 'incurable data geek' and world-class endurance athlete, he is a triathlon age-group world champion and, in 2014, rowed 2,750 miles unsupported across the Pacific from California to Hawaii with his wife in a record-setting 45 days to raise awareness about sugar and metabolic disease.
Kendra Brassfield
Kendra Brassfield is the Chief Executive Officer of NeoLife International, the Santa Clara-based global nutrition and wellness company founded by her father Jerry Brassfield in 1958. She joined in 2011 as a Market Research Strategist, rose through marketing leadership, drove the rebrand from GNLD to NeoLife, and took the top job in August 2016. A Saint Mary's College of California graduate and Milken Institute Associate, she is also a Certified Personal Trainer, distance runner, and early-morning surfer who insists on a NeoLifeBar before paddling out.
Foodsmart
Foodsmart (formerly Zipongo) is a San Francisco-based telenutrition company that pairs registered dietitians with a food benefits marketplace to treat diet-related chronic disease and food insecurity. It serves more than 2.2 million members across employer plans, Medicaid managed care, Medicare Advantage and commercial insurers, and in 2024 raised $200M led by TPG's The Rise Fund to expand its 'Foodscripts' food-as-medicine programs with major U.S. health systems.
Kurt Knight
Kurt Knight is the CEO of Foodsmart, the largest digital food-as-medicine platform in the United States, appointed in March 2025 after 13 years at Amwell where he rose to COO and helped scale virtual care nationally. With an MBA from Harvard, an MPH from Columbia, and field experience everywhere from UNICEF to the Gates Foundation to the Boston Consulting Group, Knight brings an unusually wide lens to the intersection of food, nutrition, and healthcare delivery.