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COMPANY: Smartypans
YEAR FOUNDED: 2019
INDUSTRY: AI, Health and Wellness, Deeptech
HQ: Mountain View, California ⛰
FOUNDER: Prachi Baxi, Rahul Baxi
FEATURE
26 Sept 2023

Setting the Scene

  • There is no easy way to track nutritional intake. 🤷🏼

    • “How many calories are in this? Is this dish healthy? What are my macros for the day?”

  • Plus, when craving Grandma's signature recipe, existing solutions fall short:

    • Nutrition tracking apps are rigid and offer limited ingredient databases.

    • Meal kits sidestep cherished family recipes altogether.

  • This week’s company offers a comprehensive nutrition tracking solution for home cooked meals and beyond.

In a Sentence

SmartyPans provides technology that offers a data driven approach to personalized nutrition.

  • Technology: A cooking pan equipped with a camera and proprietary patented sensors identifies ingredients, and measures weight, temperature, and stirring motions in real time.

  • Data driven: AI technology computes the nutritional contents of ingredients and tracks them on the user’s personal health dashboard.

  • Personalized: A UGC platform powered by this technology, allows users to subscribe to the content of influential chefs or create and preserve family recipes.

Bulleted Version

  • Think of SmartyPans as a fitness tracker for your kitchen, but instead of tracking calories burned it tracks calories consumed. 🤯
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The Basics:

  • Headquarters: Mountain View, California ⛰
  • Employee Count: 6
  • Investors:

    Anorak Ventures and AARP

  • Currently raising: $4M round with $1.5M committed
  • Business model: B2C product sales, B2B subscriptions for grocery and food brands, royalties for hardware licensing
  • Early traction: Patents issued, 26k user waitlist, 3k paid beta users, distribution partnerships with QVC and Wayfair, hardware licensing interest from prominent cookware brands

Due Diligence

WHAT WE LIKE
  • 📈 Market: The home cooking segment of the nutrition industry is skyrocketing with a recent study suggesting that 82% of meals consumed in the US are cooked at home.

  • 🌱 Sustainable: SmartyPans uses proprietary, biodegradable PCBs and non-metal parts, avoiding plastic, aluminum, and toxic chemicals often found in existing cookware.

  • 📹 Content creation: The platform enables creators to document and share recipes to their media channels, tapping into a content creation market approaching half-a-trillion dollars.

POTENTIAL RISKS
  • ⏳ Time to market: SmartyPans technology requires longer R&D cycles, which can extended time to market.

  • 💸 Changing the model: While SmartyPans recurring revenue comes from B2B users, they currently offer valuable data to retail users at no cost.

    • Introducing a D2C-based subscription later on could impact user retention.

  • 🔨 Hardware: Historically, hardware-driven products face competition from cheaper, versatile software applications.

    • While SmartyPans’ patent creates a moat against direct competitors, other companies might leverage AI and photo-centric tech to advance nutrition tracking.

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Founder Profile

  • Prachi Baxi, CEO: Previously oversaw Nutrition Compliance for over 200 food districts, MS in Clinical/Public Health Nutrition.

  • Rahul Baxi, CTO: Co-founded Grubshire.

Why Smartypans

By combining innovative nutrition tracking, AI driven insights, recipe guidance, and an eco-friendly product SmartyPans has whipped up a recipe for success. 🧑‍🍳

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