Popular health coaching startup Noom announced Tuesday it closed on a massive $540 million Series F led by Silver Lake. Other investors like Oak HC/FT and Novo Holdings also participated in the round, along with Sequoia Capital, which led the company’s last round of funding — a $58 million Series E — back in 2019.
Noom also announced it added Silver Lake managing director Adam Karol and former TaskRabbit CEO Stacy Brown-Philpot to its board of directors.
This news comes on the heels of a banner year for Noom, which generated more than $400 million in revenue last year alone, as reported by TechCrunch. The company says it will use the money to further innovate its platform and grow its user base by expanding into new geographies and employee benefits programs. The company is hiring too, with more than 50 open tech positions available at its NYC headquarters.
“I am energized by the tremendous momentum Noom has seen over the past year,” co-founder and CEO Saeju Jeong said in a statement. “Most people want to eat healthier, exercise more, be less stressed, and get better sleep, but it’s not easy to change these behaviors. This strategic round of funding reflects our investors’ confidence in the immense opportunity we have in building a business around helping as many people as possible live healthier lives through behavior change.”
Noom has come a long way since Jeong and his co-founder Artem Petakov launched the company back in 2007. Initially, it was a connected bike and calorie-counting app, but then it switched gears in 2017 toward a focus on weight loss, which it is best known for today.
Like many other similar apps, Noom allows users to count the number of calories they consume each day and track their fitness. What sets it apart, though, is its use of cognitive behavioral therapy — a goal-oriented psychotherapy treatment that is meant to help people better understand and prevent the things that trigger negative thoughts and harmful compulsive habits (like overeating). Each new user answers various survey questions so Noom can better understand their unique challenges and goals. Then, the app’s algorithm creates a plan to reach those goals, and a user is paired with a coach to help support them.
While Noom is perhaps best known for this consumer-facing app, it also develops enterprise-targeted platforms that focus on more chronic conditions like anxiety, diabetes, hypertension and sleep troubles. These are areas the company will continue to explore and innovate in light of this recent funding.
In general, fitness — especially at-home fitness — has certainly been having a moment over the last year, which tech companies like Ergatta, Tonal and Whoop garnering investors’ attention amid a surge in demand brought on by the pandemic. Startups like Modern Health and Happify Health have also been bringing in big rounds lately for their unique approaches to health and wellness.
But Greg Mondre, co-CEO and managing partner at Silver Lake, says Noom is a “pioneer and clear leader” in this space, combining “sophisticated technology, human coaching, and psychology” to ensure lasting change for its users. Karol added that he and the Silver Lake team believe Noom has “only scratched the surface” of the ways tech can transform fitness, health and wellness.
