Exclusive: Wellness platform Lifeforce raises $12M Series A

Lifeforce, a membership-based wellness platform, raised a $12 million Series A, CEO Dugal Bain-Kim tells Axios exclusively.

Why it matters: Lifeforce aims to use fresh funds to develop partnerships with health-care providers and wearable makers.

Details: The oversubscribed round was co-led by Peterson Ventures and M13 and also saw participation by Ridgeline Ventures, Rosecliff Ventures, and Seaside Ventures.

• The company is also backed by co-founder and motivational speaker Tony Robbins, Peter Diamandis, Serena Williams and Scottie Upshall.

What's next: The Santa Monica, California-based company believes that the latest capital will get Lifeforce through the next 24 months.

• "If all goes well, we will be in charge of our own destiny at that point and will do another raise then, but we are on a good trajectory," said Dugal Bain-Kim, co-founder and CEO.

How it works: Lifeforce provides members with at-home diagnostics, access to functional medicine physicians, certified health coaches, and data-driven personalized care plans.

• Lifeforce offers its memberships direct to consumers online. The memberships include in-home quarterly biomarker testing, expert clinical support, and unlimited health coaching all to help optimize your personal health.
• Lifeforce also sells  premium nutraceuticals to support a consumer’s personal health journey without a membership through its website as well.
• Members get a customized digital dashboard that will include test results and additional information to help streamline and guide members.
• Expert clinical support and useful health tools and information delivered directly to members on an ongoing basis.

Meanwhile, a personalized plan inclusive of specific physical routines, supplement regimen, and body tracking indices with clinical insights from the Lifeforce network of medical professionals and physicians.

• "There is a lot of spray and pray in health and wellness without proper data," says Bain-Kim. "Our goal is to move away from a guessing game with more precise data."
• The platform collects member's health data every three months — and Lifeforce wants to invest in infrastructure to link those data points with patient records, Dugal Bain-Kim says.
• "We have a proactive data set," he says. "Now we need to build the tech to build better programs, as we grow and get closer to the next series of fundraising."

Flashback: Raising capital wasn't easy, given the macro environment, Dugal Bain-Kim says.

• "Diligence was rigorous and it took a month or two longer than it would have taken in 2022, as people thought longer and deeper," he says.

Yes, but: The CEO says Lifeforce's preventive care pitch was attractive.

• "In the end, more folks wanted to get in than we could let in," he says.
• "Over 50% of health care is VBC now, as structural incentives are clicking into place and preventive care will get rewarded," he adds.