Swathi Arulguppe Nagendra is the Founder & CEO of BetterMeal AI, a Silicon Valley Founder Institute portfolio company at the forefront of tech-enabled personalized nutrition. BetterMeal AI is developing an Artificially Intelligent Nutritionist, specifically aimed at helping individuals who have complex health issues linked to their diet.
Watch the full video interview with BetterMeal AI CEO Swathi Arulguppe, or see the highlights below:
Are you a FoodTech or AgTech pre-seed stage founder? Apply to join the upcoming FI global Food Ecosystems accelerator program.
Key Insights include:
- Challenges & opportunities in the emerging personalized nutrition space
- How consumers misinterpret dietary fads that actually harm their health
- Food as our body's fuel, and as a communication channel with our gut
- Inflammation and internal diseases rooted in gut health
- How to think about health tech impact, and creating wellness as an outcome
- CEO Swathi Arulguppe’s predictions for the future of personalized nutrition
However, it was in part due to her own personal experience with stress-related health issues that led her to exploring nutrition—and after trying out a handful of existing tech products as well as being prescribed a number of different medications, she was still looking for a solution that could help to actually reverse her condition:
I was looking for something that would help me reverse my condition—that is when I started doing a lot of nutrition research, understanding how the food works on the body at a cellular level, how important, it is for us to understand our gut biology—and slowly, by changing my food habits, I could actually reverse my condition.
And looking at many people who are suffering like me, I wanted to help them find a solution that can help them reverse their disease progression—and that is the reason we are here, with BetterMeal.AI.
CEO Swathi Arulguppe notes that so many of the diseases making people sick today are in fact rooted in dietary choices and gut health, and many unique to our personal metabolisms—but that these dietary ‘choices’ are often not apparent, and that food consumers tend to ignore what feedback their gut is giving to them:
BetterMeal AI helps you make the right food choices—it doesn't push you to go on a vegan, or any other diet—it's giving you the right food choices. You can still eat healthy, enjoy your food to the fullest: but for YOUR gut. Our ultimate goal is not just weight gain/loss or calories, but to help you improve your gut health. It's all about eating FOR your gut, and thinking FROM your gut.
For more information about BetterMeal AI, and to sign up to receive early access at their launch (anticipated Spring 2022), visit their website at BetterMeal.AI
Are you a FoodTech or AgTech pre-seed stage founder? Apply to join the upcoming FI global Food Ecosystems accelerator program.
Graduates of the Founder Institute are creating some of the world's fastest growing startups, having raised over $1.85BN in funding, and building products people love across over 200 cities worldwide.
See the most recent news from our Grads at FI.co/news, or learn more about their stories at FI.co/journey.
