Mixfit co-founder talks B2B expansion, DSM partnership and new professional platform for personalized nutrition

05 Aug 2021 --- Mixfit is on track to expand its direct-to-consumer personalized nutrition AI system to health care professionals, as well as other consumable brands. Marco Iotti, chief technology and scientific officer and co-founder of Mixfit, speaks to NutritionInsight about the start-up’s expansion, as well as the role that DSM – which owns half of the business – is playing.

“Until now, Mixfit was focused on creating a complete system (combining an app, intelligence, a device and consumables) for end-users to demonstrate the overall concept and the opportunities that it opens,” Iotti explains.

Users can use Mixfit’s Intelligent Nutrition Assistant (Mina) via an app to record aspects like food intake, physical activity, DNA and environmental factors such as pollution, UV light and temperature. They then receive lifestyle suggestions and can use Mixfit’s at-home machine to make beverages with personalized nutritional profiles. 

“We address macronutrients and micronutrients together with nutritional density requirements based on lifestyle. In the next six months, we will also include active ingredients such as caffeine and taurine,” explains Iotti.

Working with DSM
The new Mina Pro platform specifically targets health care professionals like nutritionists, coaches and dieticians, who can be continuously connected to their clients. In addition to receiving personalized nutrition plans, the users will soon get tailored training guidance. Mina Pro users will also be able to submit blood analyses to help form the suggestions. Iotti says Mixfit will now focus on digital technology and nutritional intelligence. 

Team DSM has already been using the system during this season of cycling races to track their riders. 

“The collaboration with the nutritionists of Team DSM showed us how poor the existing solutions were, and we realized we could have a large impact. Mina Pro was also inspired by our ability to deploy the large intelligence dataset on which Mina is based in multiple ways,” explains Iotti. 

Expanding on DSM’s role in Mixfit’s growth, he explains that it has helped the start-up learn about industry, support existing clients and understand regulatory frameworks. 

“They are clearly a friendly face in the industry for us, but we are not limited to working solely with DSM brands or clients. We are focused on changing the industry, and to do so, we need to involve everyone. Anyone sharing the same view of a digital future in nutrition is welcome on this journey.” 

Partnering with other businesses
Another aspect of Mixfit’s growth is opening the system up to other consumable brands, which will happen in the near future. The brands might include those offering supplements, food and training in terms of the output aspect, or device and kitchen producers for the hardware aspect.

While there are already some partnerships in the pipeline, it is still too early for Iotti to share more. However, he emphasizes that Mixfit represents a partner – not a competitor – to other members of industry. 

“In the beginning, we had to make our own consumables as we had to validate the system. Now we can focus on where we are best in class: digitalizing nutrition and well-being. This means creating a better relationship and added value between the end consumer and nutrition brands.” 

New consumables in development
As Mixfit expands to new areas, it will continue to be available to end-consumers. However, the B2C offering will change as the brand partnerships and other consumables are rolled out. These could include a personalized food basket brought home by online grocers, or active ingredients supplied via the Mixfit device. Areas of growth in the coming months include a platform for professionals, brand partnerships, Asian expansion and new feature launches. 

Iotti is confident there will be no significant R&D challenges surrounding the new consumables. “When you do something new, there are always challenges but nothing impossible to overcome. Most of the complexities have been already untangled in the last four years.” 

The company’s ultimate goal is to build a living algorithm that mimics people as closely as possible and changes as they change. “This will allow us to give the best recommendation and suggestions to improve well-being.” 

Standing out from the crowd
A key part of Mixfit’s technology is that Mina validates the suggestions’ effectiveness to see if they need to be changed. One way to do this is a subjective method, which is less relevant but simpler to get. Automatic data gathering is the objective way, which is better but time-consuming.

“Other companies might collect one or two types of data, but one of our unique selling points is that we manage these complexities.” 

While Mixfit is already available in the US and Europe, the company will focus on Asia over the forthcoming months. Iotti notes that aside from being home to a major proportion of the world’s population, there is also a significant interest in the region for Mixfit.

“Currently, Asian consumers have a strong desire to try more things. They are becoming more aware of health and wellness, and their mindset and infrastructure are already digital-friendly.” However, he notes that cultural differences like taste will need to be taken into account. 

By Katherine Durrell