How a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu buff and a biohacker built fitness biz Ultrahuman

Mohit Kumar, an avid cyclist and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu enthusiast, was once training at one of the largest mixed martial art camps in the world (Tiger Muay Thai in Thailand). There, he observed athletes train smartly using data, recovery tools and protocols.

This led him to join hands with his friend Vatsal Singhal, a cross-fit enthusiast and a biohacker, to come up with a vision where they could make the journey of fitness for people more personalised and impactful. 

Kumar and Singhal, who were also co-founders at Runnr, which later merged with food delivery service Zomato, then launched Ultrahuman, a metabolic fitness platform, in 2019. By using glucose and other biomarkers, Ultrahuman is helping people improve their energy levels, lose fat and avoid metabolic disorders.

For instance, Ultrahuman M1, a metabolic health tracking platform, provides intelligent nudges based on glucose biomarkers. This helps people optimise their exercise, sleep and nutrition based on deep insights from the platform. 

The M1 tracks the wearer’s metabolism as they go about their day. It triggers timely nudges to the user such as alerts to a high blood glucose event and suggestions to take a walk for optimising their glucose levels.

The opportunity is huge, as over a billion people in the world suffer from some metabolic health disorder. Ultrahuman has raised $25 million to date. Its investors include Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI), which is backed by DisruptAD and managed by Falcon Edge, Steadview Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Blume Ventures and Utsav Somani’s iSeed fund. These also include a range of marquee founders and angel investors including Tiger Global’s Scott Schleifer.

Ultrahuman has now launched its newest wearable, the Ultrahuman Ring. The metabolism-tracking wearable will measure movement, sleep and the body’s energy dynamics coupled with intelligent activity or recuperating recommendations, in real-time, to balance and take control of one’s health.

The Ring provides a minimal form factor with no screens or vibrations keeping the user away from constant notifications. The user can check the details when she wants to, on the app, ensuring no intrusion in her daily activities. It also comes with a power-packed 5-day battery life.

“We have always believed in the power of biomarkers in terms of their ability to make health optimization more efficient,” said Mohit Kumar, founder and CEO, Ultrahuman. “With the Ultrahuman ring and a new suite of metabolic biomarkers, you can now understand not just what’s affecting your glucose metabolism but also how to act on the insights in an efficient way,” said Kumar, an alumnus of PES Institute of Technology (PESIT).

For example, a user can figure how much of her glucose metabolism is affected by the lack of sleep versus the food itself. The firm said this is a leap in the world of biomarkers and allows to study various factors around human health in a unique and much more impactful way than ever.

The Ultrahuman ring is designed for enduring rough usage conditions and workouts. The Ring’s outer surface is made of a titanium body coated with tungsten carbide which is 5 times harder than tool steel, making it scratch resistant. At the same time, comfort and minimalism is at the core of the product. This is ensured by the smooth inner shell of the ring that makes it comfortable during sleep and rest scenarios.

Ultrahuman Ring works standalone or in combination with the existing advanced glucose monitoring platform, Ultrahuman M1, to offer users deeper metabolic insights and more precise actionable data for optimising users’ health.

Some of the insights that will be available with the Ultrahuman Ring would be around understanding one’s NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis), sleep efficiency and its effect on glucose metabolism and food’s impact on recovery and performance.

Investors are getting attracted to a lot of healthcare and fitness startups, especially in the post-Covid world. Last year, HealthifyMe, an AI health and fitness app, raised $75 million in a funding round led by investors such as LeapFrog, Khosla Ventures, with participation from Unilever Ventures, and Elm (Saudi Arabia PIF entity).

In April this year, HealthifyMe unveiled a flagship fitness plan that integrates a biosensor system with a continuous glucose monitor (Bios),  a connected smart scale, parameter metabolic panel, coaches and Al's assistant. It comprises a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) amongst other sensors and body monitors. 

The CGM, is worn on the arm, measures real-time glucose levels. By combining the glucose patterns with user’s food intake, steps and other fitness patterns, the platform help clients understand what foods work better for their bodies. It create smart nudges and personalized diet plans that help them manage and stabilize their glucose spikes better.

Last year in September, MFine, the digital health startup, raised $48 million funding round co-led by Moore Strategic Ventures and BEENEXT. The firm has built an innovation by bringing Blood Pressure (BP) and Glucose Monitoring on a smartphone. MFine has added BP and Glucose monitoring to the suite of self-check health tools available on its app, eliminating the need of any external devices to measure and track these health vitals.