FUND STARTED BY DRAGON DEN STAR MAKES FIRST INVESTMENT

A $100m fund spearheaded by Dragons’ Den star Steven Bartlett (pictured above) has made its first investment.

Flight Fund, which was launched in January seeking to back the next generation of businesses aiming for a $1bn valuation has invested $2.5m in personalised nutrition company ZOE.

The move comes after the company secured $38m in its Series B extension round in December. 

Located in London and Boston, ZOE was founded by Professor Tim Spector of King’s College London, data science leader Jonathan Wolf, and entrepreneur George Hadjigeorgiou.

ZOE is also backed by international investors Accomplice and Balderton Capital and has secured over $92m in funding so far. The funds will be used to scale ZOE’s operations and science

Mr Bartlett said: “Once in a while I come across a company that truly has the potential to move the world forward in a profound way. It takes a great team, with a bold vision and a well executed product roadmap to do so.

That is exactly what I found in ZOE. It’s a company that represents the future – health science, driven by big data that enables us to extend not just our life-span, but more importantly our health span.

I’m deeply proud to be an investor and now an ambassador of a company that I truly believe will change the world by leading the nutrition-science revolution.”

Mr Hadjigeorgiou, who serves as ZOE’s president, added: “We are unbelievably excited to be partnering with Steven. Since my co-founder, Professor Tim Spector was on The Diary of a CEO talking Steven through key ZOE principles, such as no calorie counting and the impact of gut health on wellbeing; we’ve had huge interest in ZOE and our personalised nutrition programme.

From working with Steven and having him use the ZOE programme first-hand, we know he aligns with our mission to double-down on health science to help more people get control of their health and improve the health of millions.”