Healthy lifestyle app Caterpillar secures funding

Leeds-based Caterpillar, a digital rewards app for well being promotion, training and behavioural change, has secured £450,000 in funding from buyers together with enterprise capital agency Jenson Funding Companions.

The healthtech firm mentioned it can use the funds so as to add new options to the app, develop the vary of loyalty schemes it provides, and for different areas of enterprise growth.

The app was based by ex-NHS Digital director of strategic communications, Paul Baverstock, and rewards customers for bodily exercise and improved dietary habits, with loyalty factors redeemable at standard chains corresponding to Vue Cinemas and on-line health club class supplier Hustle.

The app is constructed on a software-as-a-service platform and connects to third-party wearables and well being apps, corresponding to Google Match and Apple Well being. This lets customers mechanically accrue reward factors with out having to enter knowledge manually.

Baverstock mentioned: “Our thought is easy. We use behavioural science and rewards-based nudges to assist folks make wholesome life modifications that stick and to assist forestall the onset of pricey to deal with avoidable ill-health. Continual ailments like most cancers, diabetes and weight problems creep up on you and benefit from the truth that making even minor useful way of life modifications for the long run is de facto tough. That is the place Caterpillar may help. We maintain our customers engaged in constructive change by nice content material and rewards.

“This funding allows us to complement our app, add partaking new options and capabilities, and is a key step in the direction of us attaining our objective of serving to hundreds of thousands of individuals stay more healthy lives.”

Jeffrey Faustin, chief funding officer at Jenson Funding Companions, commented: “Caterpillar is doing actually vital work. Continual illness is already a significant drawback for healthcare programs, however many international locations, the UK included, have an ageing inhabitants. This implies the problem is simply going to worsen. Caterpillar is making an attempt to deal with this problem with a preventative method rooted in science. However what’s secret is the truth that this isn’t about nagging folks. Its reward programmes and loyalty factors have an enormous shopper enchantment. It’s a really savvy resolution to a really significant issue.”

Caterpillar is the primary firm from Leeds start-up incubator Construct to obtain funding. Construct was arrange in collaboration between Leeds Metropolis Council and the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise and helps early stage companies with a 12-week entrepreneurship and networking programme.

Date printed: March 30, 2022