Caraldine Nolan is the driving force behind NutraVerse, a recently launched nutritional app designed to give health-conscious consumers a host of less well-known information about what they’re eating.
What distinguishes NutraVerse from other food apps is that it provides more granular data about food choices. For example, the app includes a food’s nutri-score, a colour-coded system indicating the nutritional quality of a food or beverage.
Also included is the nova-score (how much processing a food has been through) and an eco-score, which shows how sustainable a product and its packaging are.
So far, there are more than a million food products listed on the NutraVerse app. Users scan the product’s bar code to get the information. Also included are a food diary, a daily dashboard summary, weight monitoring, recipes and a recipe builder.
Nolan used to work for WeightWatchers and when the company shut its doors in Ireland, she found herself out of a job. Recognising that their departure left a gap in the market and still passionate about helping people to eat well, Nolan set up Weighless Wonders, which provides online and in-person weight loss classes based on a holistic approach to wellness.
But Nolan was not prepared to stop there. An avid reader of nutritional research who has experienced gut-related health problems herself, Nolan came across the nutri-score in her reading and began wondering how she could get this information over to consumers in an easy-to-understand way.
She decided an app was the solution and having taught herself to code and done the app’s initial development, she got help from Maynooth University (through an Enterprise Ireland innovation voucher) to take it to MPV [minimal viable product] stage. She then employed a developer to finish out the app, which was soft launched in September.
So far, it has recorded more than 500 downloads across 10 European countries and the company has several hundred customers paying €5.99 a month or €50 a year to use it.
Interestingly enough, however, it’s the premium subscription at €10 a week, which includes a weekly zoom session on topics such as food ingredients, sustainability and labelling, that has attracted the most subscribers. Nolan plans to incorporate this feature into the app when she completes a funding round in the order of €100,000 in the coming months.
The company employs three people full-time and six subcontractors and is based in Tallaght. Bootstrapped investment to date is roughly €40,000. This is made up of personal funding and support from South Dublin LEO (local enterprise office) and Enterprise Ireland.
Nolan is participating in the AgTechUCD programme for agtech and agri-food start-ups, which is designed to fast-track business development and hone the leaderships skills of its participants.
“I have always been fascinated about our health and the impact of what we eat and when I came across the nutri-score on front of product labelling in France, it struck me as a really good idea as it can help people to avoid foods with poor nutritional value,” says Nolan, who is completing a nutrition and consumer trends course at UCD.
“In addition, research by the International Agency for Research on Cancer showed that the outcomes of obesity and cancer cases were different when people made good food choices because they could see the nutri-score on packaging. Our app also offers calorie counts and macronutrient information and our next step is to use AI to personalise the experience for subscribers.
“Ultra-processed foods is a real buzz phrase but not all are bad for you,” adds Nolan who is targeting NutraVerse at the domestic, British, French and Swedish markets to begin with.
“However, there is a serious lack of education around this topic and scaremongering on social media. Our tool educates consumers effectively and helps them make healthier and more sustainable food choices.”
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