Calorify

Calorify, a metabolic testing startup, has raised nearly a half-million in a pre-seed round to expand the work it is doing with clinical trials, medical practices and pro sports clients such as Olympians, pro athletes and NBA and Tour de France teams. The science of doubly-labeled water - in which harmless additional neutrons are added to hydrogen... and oxygen isotopes but tracked through urine samples - has existed for 75 years but was cost-prohibitive for widespread use. Calorify has found a way to commercialize the testing, which can quantify a series of biometrics. It can provide accurate measurements of calorie intake and energy expenditure, as well as body fat percentage and VO2max, a limit of oxygen consumption during exercise that is increasingly understood to be the single best predictor of fitness and longevity. The recent funding included backing from Santa Clara Ventures, Santa Cruz Ventures, Vaigai Ventures and HealthTech Capital, as well as angel investors. Mix said he previously raised $1.2 million in which he personally led a friends-and-family round. "Everything to do with athletic performance - ultimately, on some level - has to come down to energy, and the company just think that measuring it is going to open open the door for all these sport scientists, for all these athletes, to just understand and improve their bodies in a way that wasn't possible before this technology," Calorify founder and CEO Hari Mix said. The user experience is simple. Collect a urine sample, drink the doubly labeled water, collect a second sample and then, a week later, collect a third and final sample. That all gets mailed in to a lab, and results are available two business days after it's received.Read More