Bioniq, which supplies subscribers with personalised nutritional supplements based on their blood test results, has acquired smart mirror company Vaha.
Bioniq currently operates in the UK, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France and the Netherlands and the deal will fuel its expansion into the US, Qatar, Kuwait and Kazakhstan throughout 2023.
The Vaha AI-enabled home fitness mirrors – Vaha S and Vaha X (£1,295 or £36 per month and £1,995 or £55 per month respectively) – incorporate 35 design patents that provide users with personalised workouts.
“This is a glimpse into the future of personalised health in the form of tailor-made wellness solutions and home fitness driven by data and innovation,” says Vadim Fedotov, CEO of Bioniq. “Bioniq is built on precision, quality and research, our core belief being that innovation should first and foremost impact quality of life and wellbeing. Health has many crucial drivers, one of them being daily activity and so we are incredibly proud to welcome Vaha to the Bioniq global platform to enhance the daily progress of our members.”
Bioniq has experienced a year of growth through acquisitions and territorial expansion. In January 2022, the company – which at the time operated only in the UK, UAE and Russia – made its first acquisition in the form of personalised nutrition company Loewi, a scientific spin-off of the Technical University of Munich. As a result it was able to branch out into more territories, such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.
Bioniq’s service starts with a 50-parameter blood test, which drives the company's algorithms to prescribe the correct nutritional formula for the user, as well as a consultation with a dietician. The unique algorithm – which leverages data from a proprietary database of over 3 million biochemical markers – was developed by Bioniq’s co-founder and medical director Constantin Karuzin. The service, via the Bioniq Life package, costs £149 for the tests then £99 each month for the supplements.
“I strongly believe the future belongs to precision health,” said Calin Popescu, founder of VAHA and now CTO of Bioniq. “By combining personalised home fitness with bespoke supplements we create an incredible global health platform to continuously innovate and build life-changing products."
Bioniq already partners with Whoop on a subscription deal – customers committing to a six-month Bioniq package at £950 can get Whoop 4.0 for free – giving them access to HRV metrics and round-the-clock sleep, fitness and recovery tracking and insights.
According to Crunchbase, Bioniq – which now counts German footballer Manuel Neuer as a shareholder – raised US$14.6m in funding over two rounds in September 2020 and January 2021. Investment companies include HV Capital, Rocket Internet, Unbound Venture, Porsche Ventures and TQ Ventures.
