Lifesum Acquires LYKON, Enters DTC Diagnostics

What’s happening: The healthy eating app acquired German personalised nutrition company LYKON.

Expanding its services, LYKON’s at-home biomarker testing will give Lifesum users access to science-backed, nutrition insights and recommendations.

Right track. Providing recipes, meal plans and food and exercise tracking, Lifesum encourages its 65M+ user base, plus corporate clients like Amazon and Nike, to make smarter, sustainable food choices.

Tapping trends, it added a sleep tracking feature in partnership with Oura and hormone-regulating meal plans last year.

Integrating LYKON’s DTC “nutrigenomics” and AI plans, Lifesum can sell itself as an ecosystem of interconnected nutritional services.

Feeding Frenzy

Powering up, personalised nutrition platforms are getting smarter.

• Alongside a multilingual AI coach, India’s Healthify introduced Snap, an image-to-text AI tool that lets users upload photos of their meals to track calorie intake.
• Fuelling athletes, Hexis leverages AI to select foods for optimal performance while adapting to real-time training goals.
• In February, France’s Jow landed $13M for its personalised meal planning app which partners with leading grocers.

But with UK nutrition startup ZOE restructuring to offset overexpansion, and US CGM platform Supersapiens terminating its memberships due to lack of funding, some players are struggling to find the recipe for success.

Looking ahead: Plotting its own path, Lifesum wants to deliver a tailor-made wellness experience beyond basic nutrition. Set on building a healthy business model and user base, it plans to keep enhancing its capabilities, forge strong partnerships and tap into new market segments.