Mike Prytkov said he knows what it’s like to let stress take over one’s life.
While building his first company, he said he worked long hours and gained weight. After exiting his company (an adtech company called Appness), he said he tried many things to lose the pounds: extreme workouts, calorie tracking, and fasting. “While it worked, consistency was the hard part,” he told TechCrunch.
What he really wanted was a coach who would keep him accountable, he said. So in 2019, he launched Simple, an AI-powered health coaching app that helps people lose weight. Then, in 2023, he added its standout feature: An AI coach named Avo, which helps give tailored advice to users’ needs and progress.
“We wanted to help people lose weight without the guilt or grind that is innate to the toxic diet culture,” he said.
Having built the company to a current $160 million in ARR with 700,000 subscribers, he said, Simple announced on Wednesday that it closed a $35 million Series B funding round led by actor Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat Ventures. The company has raised $45 million in total funding.
Prytkov had an early co-founder who has since left the company, leaving him at the helm solo.
Avo today handles at least more than 100,000 coaching conversations a day and processes nearly 300,000 daily meal logs, Prytkov said. Users fill out a form to help them build a personalized program, then they are introduced to the AI coach. It collects information, like meal logs, from user input, and it runs assessments that score habits and nutritional quality, he said.
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“The coaching is delivered through a chat powered by LLMs that adapt tone and content to each person, with memory for long-term context and constitution-based fine-tuning,” Prytkov added.
Obviously, the app is a direct competitor to Noom, perhaps the most popular behavioral dieting app in the industry, with millions of users.. And it competes with Weightwatchers and MyFitnessPal. Prytkov said it is different from its competitors because it does not offer generic lessons or generally track calories, nor has it ventured into supplying GLP-1 medications.
“We provide personalized coaching, not just tracking,” he said. “Avo adapts daily plans across nutrition, fasting, movement, and habits, as it provides real-time meal feedback and tailored check-ins.”
It does, however, help complement GLP-1 users and their medication, acting as a “behaviour engine” that helps sustain routines after the meds stop. “
Although the coaching premise of the app has remained unchanged, the rise of LLMs has been a boon to personalization. “AI has changed both the product and the model,” he continued.
“Every dialogue, every logged meal feeds a closed‑loop learning system that updates each person’s profile and improves our cohort‑level models,” he said. “With each iteration, Avo becomes more accurate and more proactive.”
Prytkov said that Hartbeat approached the company after it launched Avo two years ago. The firm already had a few health investments under its belt.
“At the time, we weren’t looking for investors, but HartBeat Ventures felt like an amazing fit for us, so we agreed,” he said, adding that the app already had the metrics, profitability, and traction. Others in the round include the private credit firm Liquidity.
Prytkov believes users, meanwhile, have taken to the app because it doesn’t feel clinical to them. He said virtual wellness has become the “default front door” for weight management as it’s proven affordable and accessible. Next, he wants to expand his company’s GLP-1 companion features and also launch specialized women’s health and midlife programs.
Eventually, he plans to expand beyond weight loss and make a health app that can help with sleep, stress, and movement.
“Our vision is to become the Duolingo of health,” Prytkov said. “The goal is simple. Become the go-to fun health companion people use every day, and the most effective way to build healthy habits.”
Source: techcrunch.com
