Bioniq founder on why taking a personalised method to supplementation has longevity boosting potential.
Final month, client well being firm Bioniq landed a $15 million Sequence B funding spherical to advance the worldwide progress of its personalised dietary supplements primarily based on blood biomarker knowledge. The corporate leverages an AI-driven algorithm and an in depth biochemical database to create personalized dietary supplements designed to evolve with a person’s well being wants.
London-based Bioniq has grown quickly since launching in 2019, boasting a rising foothold within the US, which now accounts for greater than 50% of its buyer base, and securing partnerships with the likes of Lanserhof and UFC. Based by a former athlete, the corporate’s method has change into standard amongst skilled athletes in search of to optimize micronutrient ranges and enhance efficiency and restoration. However Bioniq additionally firmly has its sights set on longevity…
Longevity.Expertise: Bioniq’s method is centered round the concept a one-size-fits-all method to dietary supplementation is insufficient, a message that may resonate with many in longevity circles. With a mannequin primarily based on serving to its customers make measurable enhancements of their nutrient ranges and total well being, the corporate’s personalised technique is predicated on years of knowledge assortment. Certainly, Bioniq claims its proprietary biochemical database, primarily based on blood take a look at knowledge from clients throughout 5 continents, is the biggest of its form. To study extra concerning the firm’s method, and the way it pertains to longevity, we caught up with founder and CEO, Vadim Fedotov.
Having performed basketball all around the world, together with for the German nationwide workforce, it was Fedotov’s sports activities profession that finally led him to discovered Bioniq.
“I went by way of plenty of accidents and had plenty of publicity to sports activities medication, by way of rehabilitation, recalibration of my capabilities, optimizing my well being, but in addition by way of prevention going ahead,” he says. “From a really younger age, I used to be creating a mindset round find out how to defend myself sooner or later. I began out centered on stopping harm, however now I’m 39 and I’m pondering extra about being proactive about ageing!”
Well being shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all
Fedotov is characteristically candid concerning the position of supplementation in human well being.
“I believe diet is the inspiration of your well being – one thing like 70% of your total well being ought to come from what you eat and drink,” he says. “Supplementation is simply an addition to that, however lots of of billions of {dollars} are being spent over-the-counter yearly, for dietary supplements which might be generic to all of us. And that simply doesn’t make sense to me – why ought to all of us take two capsules per day as a result of that’s what it says on the bottle?”
At 6’9 and 260 kilos, Fedotov is aware of what he’s speaking about with regards to the variations between people.
“If I take two capsules of something, it is not going to change something in my physique as a result of my physique is not going to even notice it’s there,” he says. “Individuals are distinctive, and their supplementation wants are distinctive, so Bioniq’s method from day one was all the time one dimension doesn’t match all, particularly with regards to well being.”
On his journey to construct Bioniq, Fedotov met with many scientists, together with a researcher in Switzerland who studied the influence of micronutrient optimization on lots of of athletes over a seven-year interval, and found that it improved their bodily efficiency on standardized checks by as a lot as 7%.
“As a former athlete, a 7% efficiency acquire is unbelievable, so I requested him how a lot he thought an everyday individual may obtain, and he stated 35-40%,” says Fedotov. “Instantly I believed this was one thing that needs to be obtainable to everyone, however I used to be advised it was too costly, too labor intensive – the barrier to entry was too excessive.”
“My thought course of was, if we are able to take this confirmed mannequin and implement it in a scalable resolution, then you definitely might need one thing that may disrupt the market of off-the-shelf merchandise and get actually personalised options into folks’s fingers. And that is the place Bioniq began.”
Personalization at scale
In its early days, Bioniq adopted an unique, excessive contact mannequin – working with a small variety of purchasers, who paid a big premium for the corporate’s providers.
“We began off with tremendous costly $3,000 per 30 days merchandise,” says Fedotov. “Our purchasers knew everyone within the firm – the physician would drop their properties and maintain them by the hand throughout the blood take a look at to clarify what’s taking place. That’s advanced into Bioniq at this time, with 100,000 customers throughout 54 nations – we’re actually a worldwide firm now. The journey has been unbelievable, however we began from that straightforward thought: everyone is exclusive, so we’d like distinctive options.”
Bioniq at the moment presents two personalised complement merchandise: Bioniq PRO and Bioniq GO. Bioniq PRO ($199 per 30 days) presents the very best stage of personalization, incorporating blood biomarker knowledge and permitting customers to both add present bloodwork or e-book a take a look at by way of a companion lab. The information is then analyzed to create a day by day complement components tailor-made to handle any recognized nutrient imbalances. Customers additionally obtain one-on-one diet consultations with a dietitian to debate their particular wants.
Bioniq GO ($75 per 30 days) offers a extra accessible possibility through the use of a questionnaire-based method to advocate a personalised complement mix, primarily based on the corporate’s AI algorithm and blood biomarker knowledge from earlier customers.
Whatever the possibility chosen, Fedotov says that each single buyer receives a unique formulation.
“As soon as we began calculating what number of choices there are, we realized that we’re speaking about thousands and thousands of various choices,” he explains. “We haven’t had a single combination within the historical past of the corporate that has ever been the identical – even for a similar individual as soon as they repeat.”
AI-powered customization
The Bioniq algorithm routinely builds every formulation from 120 dietary “elements.”
“We’re speaking about micronutrients like iron, vitamin C, D, B6, B9, B12, but in addition issues like broccoli, ashwagandha and amino acids – no matter you want at a given second, there’s an unbelievable selection,” says Fedotov.
For every part, there’s a unique dosage, relying on a person’s present biomarkers, that are extracted from blood outcomes in addition to responses to a questionnaire.
“As of at this time, we analyze 50 key blood markers, and from these we are able to truly extrapolate and perceive many different blood markers,” says Fedotov. “We now have the biggest proprietary database for normal micronutrient blood testing on the earth, and our algorithm is taking a look at round seven million knowledge factors for every individual.”
“To formulate your product, we mix the blood take a look at knowledge with details about your demographic, way of life, targets, medical historical past and so forth. So, when you’re a 40-year-old man who desires to run a triathlon, or a 25-year-old lady who desires to get pregnant, the mixes will likely be adjusted to you.”
Dietary supplements that adapt with you
For instance the advantages of personalization, Fedotov makes use of vitamin D for example, claiming that 99% of the folks coming to Bioniq are under really helpful minimal ranges.
“However let’s say that you just’re 40 years previous, energetic and doing exercises 5 instances every week,” he says. “Nicely, your vitamin D stage must be larger to help your immune system, so your private vary needs to be a lot larger than the really helpful minimal. Our objective is to not get you into really helpful ranges, it’s to get you into the vary that displays your particular person way of life and desires.”
The subscription-based mannequin adopted by Bioniq is designed to make sure that the corporate’s merchandise evolve with the wants of its clients.
“The subscription renews each three months and is predicated on new info obtained from our customers – a brand new questionnaire or new blood take a look at,” says Fedotov. “This permits us to see how the dosages for the earlier three months have impacted their total well being ranges. So, each three months, you get a unique product tailor-made to the wants and the targets of your physique.”
After the primary three months of their subscription, Fedotov claims that many Bioniq customers report higher sleep and better power.
“For PRO customers, we are able to see notable adjustments in micronutrient biomarker ranges inside optimum ranges between blood checks,” he provides. “In reality, 92% of Bioniq members see an enchancment of their micronutrient standing in three months.”
The long run is longevity
With its new funding in place, Fedotov says that one of many key targets is to ramp up world gross sales of Bioniq GO, which he describes as “one of many fastest-growing merchandise in the entire section.”
“We intention to showcase the advantages of personalised supplementation and show why they’re the higher possibility than what’s at the moment in the marketplace at this time,” he says. “We additionally plan to deal with worldwide laboratory community integrations and extra partnerships with medical, wellness, and athletic establishments.”
Bringing issues again to longevity, Fedotov believes that his firm’s method to optimizing ranges of key micronutrients will finally result in extra wholesome ageing.
“Longevity is all about how lengthy you’ll be able to help your physique to resume its cells, to not age and never die,” he says. “If we can assist you cut back the variety of sick days per yr by optimizing micronutrient ranges, then your physique can help extra progress of latest cells as a substitute of preventing sickness. Supplementation is just a really small a part of this – train, sleep and diet are much more essential pillars of longevity – however we see our position is to provide the physique the potential to train extra, sleep higher, and to carry out longer at a better stage.”
“We’re not a medical firm, we’re supporting folks’s path to optimize themselves, which is able to permit their physique to carry out higher at a later level of their lifespan, and which I consider will result in anti-aging.”
