Company

Name: Prosper eDNA

Legal: Prosper DNA Inc.

Location: Los Angeles, CA 

Founded: 2017

Founder(s): Matteo Pellegrini and Richard Hamilton 

Website: http://www.liveprosperstrong.com 

Social Media: 22 followers on LinkedIn

INDUSTRY: Biotechnology 

Size: $399B in 2017 (Source: Global Market Insights) 

Projections: $775B by 2025 

Introduction

Prosper eDNA is a Los Angeles-based company that uses DTC epigenetic testing to design and deliver personalized recommendations to revitalize an individual’s health and promote healthy aging. 

The company also collaborates to develop customized dashboards for life insurance companies, who have vested financial interests in their customer’s longevity. Prosper eDNA increases the accuracy and planning of insurance companies by tracking aging and making accurate lifespan predictions through personalized epigenetic monitoring. 

The Product

Unlike standard DNA testing, Prosper eDNA uses epigenetics to help individuals identify ways to optimize their health by controlling epigenetic modifications. While DNA sequences cannot be changed, chemical modifications to the epigenetics attach small compounds called methyl groups to “coil-up” the DNA and change the way cells read them. Several factors affect epigenetics, such as nutrition, fitness, environmental exposure, and stress. 

Prosper’s Epigenetics Kit and Lifestyle Program is a subscription service that collects data from the customer, performs lab tests and analysis, and creates a personalized epigenetic profile and health blueprint. The individual report is sent to the customer via email within 6 to 8 weeks from the date of sample collection. The kit offers two kinds of subscriptions – silver and gold. The silver subscription includes one annual assessment, while the gold subscription offers four tests per year. 

Prosper eDNA uses its proprietary algorithm to generate scores based on several sub-scores on nutrition, fitness, and mindfulness. The sub-scores are then normalized for age and gender. Based on such analysis, Prosper eDNA offers individuals a real-time dashboard with actionable insights to achieve personal health goals. 

Using epigenetics testing, Prosper creates a dashboard for life insurance companies to make accurate predictions of customer’s lifespan and enhances their customer selection process. 

Origin and Founding Team

Richard Hamilton and Matteo Pellegrini founded Prosper in 2017. Richard Hamilton holds a doctorate in molecular biology and has extensive experience in biotechnology. Before founding Prosper, Richard spent 18 years at the leading plant genomics company, Ceres, Inc., 14 years of which were as the company’s President and CEO. In 2016, Ceres, Inc. was acquired by Land O’Lakes, one of America’s premier agribusiness and food companies. 

Matteo Pellegrini is a biophysicist, scientist, and professor. He has previously served as a faculty at UCLA’s Life Sciences Division.

Richard and Matteo’s respective experiences in the field of biotechnology led them to realize that the existing DNA testing companies analyzed DNA sequences through one-time tests that did not provide any actionable insights as they cannot be changed. On the other hand, epigenetics, which is a proxy for gene expression, had shown signs of change in response to environmental conditions and lifestyle choices. They saw the potential of epigenetics to provide useful information that was of interest to individuals, fitness companies, and life insurance companies. 

Prosper was formed to leverage insights from epigenetics in a way that is beneficial to both enterprises and individuals. 

Performance and Trends

According to Pitchbook, Prosper has raised a funding of $40,000 so far from Make in LA – Hardware Accelerator Class5 and Global Insurance Accelerator.