Platos Well being, a Lagos-based health-tech startup that enables folks to watch their physique fats and different well being metrics from the consolation of their houses, has raised a $1.4 million pre-seed spherical to scale its AI-driven metabolic well being platform, Platos Monitor.
Google for Startups led the spherical, with participation from Make investments Worldwide and a bunch of angel traders from Google, Tesla, and Unicredit. The corporate will use the funding to roll out its {hardware} medical-grade machine, Platos Physique Monitor, in Nigeria.
Launched in 2020 by Joseph Fakayode, Platos Well being is a preventive well being platform that enables customers to watch their metabolic well being from the consolation of their houses utilizing a medical-grade machine, Platos Physique Monitor. The machine gives customized well being insights by measuring key metrics equivalent to coronary heart fee, weight, physique mass index (BMI), fats ranges (together with each visceral and subcutaneous fats), and hydration standing. Customers can monitor as much as 49 quantifiable indicators that comprehensively present their total well being standing.
The Platos platform comes with Platos Monitor Software program and is out there on Android, iOS, and the online. The software program additionally integrates nicely with fashionable well being ecosystems like Apple Well being and Google Well being Join, permitting customers to consolidate all their well being knowledge in a single place. Platos Physique Monitor, which is distributed by 300 pharmacies—together with Medplus, Justrite, and Alpha Pharmacy—throughout Nigeria, is priced between ₦80,000 ($50) and ₦120,000 ($80).
Platos is among the many Nigerian healthcare startups serving to to handle the nation’s rising burden of continual ailments like diabetes, hypertension, and metabolic syndrome. With about 30% of Nigerian adults now residing with a minimum of one continual situation and greater than 8 million recognized with diabetes, the necessity for progressive, accessible options has by no means been extra essential. Nigeria’s extreme scarcity of medical professionals—simply 500 cardiologists for over 200 million folks—and the continuing exodus of medical doctors additional pressure the well being system. By leveraging know-how to empower people to watch and handle their well being, startups like Platos are filling essential gaps in care, making preventive and continual illness administration extra accessible and efficient for hundreds of thousands.
The corporate believes it is a $30 million market alternative. Nonetheless, it must fend off established opponents like Omron, whose medical gadgets have a long time of scientific validation and are broadly advisable by healthcare professionals globally.
Nonetheless, Platos has scored some early wins. The platform, which makes cash primarily from the sale of its gadgets, claims 33% of its customers achieved clinically important weight reduction inside three months, and 59.4% of customers in a current survey mentioned they’d be dissatisfied with out Platos.
In contrast to opponents—Omron, Withings, Fitbit, and Qardio—which give attention to measuring well being knowledge primarily for folks already recognized with sicknesses equivalent to cardiovascular danger or hypertension, Platos targets each the visibly sick and the hundreds of thousands of Africans residing with hidden fats and undiagnosed metabolic danger. Platos helps customers to establish and tackle silent threats earlier than they escalate, shifting the main target from reactive care to proactive prevention.
When requested about its option to launch in Nigeria, the startup factors to those gaps in care and prevention. “We noticed a niche. Well being isn’t simply scientific; it’s private,” Fakayode mentioned. “Platos Monitor brings that energy to Nigerians first.”
Platos additionally makes use of Google’s Gemini to offer customers with customized insights and well being summaries, equivalent to distinguishing between ‘good’ and ‘dangerous’ fats. Fakayode says these instruments assist customers handle weight, enhance metabolic well being, stop illness, and tackle age-related muscle loss. The Platos software program is designed for city girls and health-conscious males, teams typically affected by poor weight loss plan and inactivity.
With the recent funding, Platos is ramping up analysis and enlargement efforts. The corporate works with scientific advisors, together with Professor Hanno Pijl, an professional in metabolic well being and life-style medication, and Dr. Jimoh Itopa, to check how weight loss plan impacts physique fats and metabolism. These initiatives draw on analysis by Dr. William Li, whose work focuses on the physique’s pure protection programs, as Platos seeks to construct a extra evidence-based strategy to preventive well being.
Though its gadgets presently price greater than Nigeria’s minimal wage ( ₦70,000 or $43.56), Platos is betting that it might probably seize nearly all of Nigeria’s high-income-earning households. But when historical past is any information, at the moment’s luxurious may develop into tomorrow’s necessity. For Platos, the true check might be whether or not it might probably flip a premium product right into a mass-market prescription for higher well being earlier than the following silent epidemic hits.