Olympic medallist's Stride raises £4.6M seed to take health testing to the US
What's the deal? StrideDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a holistic health-monitoring startup founded by Team GB Olympic medallist Andrew Steele, has raised £4.6 million in a seed round. Innovate UKDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and Morgan Stanley Inclusive & Sustainable Ventures backed the round, among others.
What does it do? Stride combines DNA, gut, and blood tests with consultations and supplements, and is developing a multi-source biological age test. Steele says its Stride One membership retained 85% of customers during its first 13 months.
What's the money for? The funding will expand Stride's product range and launch Stride One in the US.
Who's behind it? Steele, 42, won 4x400m relay bronze at Beijing 2008 — a medal awarded in 2017 after the Russian team was disqualified for doping. He previously co-founded genetic testing firm DNAfitDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and sold it to David Beckham-backed Prenetics for a reported $10 million in 2018.
What's the endgame? Steele wants preventative health management to become as common as the iPhone within a decade. "There's pretty widespread adoption of a £1,000 device in the iPhone. This can be absolutely the same level," he told City AM.
The signal: Steele is betting that consumer wearables, once "super niche, edge-case stuff," have normalised biometric tracking enough to support a paid preventative-health model. The wager is that continuous monitoring can keep members engaged — and, he argues, deliver a disease-prevention impact "much bigger even than eradicating all cancer."
Read more: cityam.com
Image credit: Commander, U.S. 7th Fleet
