Nutrition, Inflammation and How Our Bodies Stand up to Disease

iSelect hosts a Deep Dive webinar on a novel innovation topic on the first and third Wednesdays of each month at 9 a.m. central. Our most recent session focused on nutrition’s role in inflammation. Research shows that chronic inflammation may be the common factor in many diseases. At iSelect, we see nutrition and nutrition-based platforms as a supplementary therapy, and as a tactic for the prevention of disease. In this conversation with iSelect venture associate, Tom Bunn, we explore inflammation’s role in disease and nutrition’s role in mitigating that inflammation.

Tim Sprinkle: OK, today we have Tom Bunn here with iSelect Fund talking about the latest Deep Dive webinar we held last week. Tom, welcome. Can you tell me a little bit about what you all discussed on the webinar?

Tom Bunn: Sure. So, as you know, we’re interested in the biggest disease indications and how to solve them. And what we’ve found is that inflammation is really at the core of a lot of major disease states including cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes. So we’re interested in the growing technologies around nutrition and what we eat and how those may or may not affect a propensity for somebody to contract those diseases.

TS: And when you say inflammation, just to get us all on the same page, really what are we talking about?

TB: Inflammation is just a natural part of the immune response, of our immune system. For thousands of years we’ve basically thought of inflammation as a very good thing. It’s like when you get a cut or you get a bug bite or you get frostbite, inflammation is your body’s natural response to ward those things off. But what we’ve found is that chronic low levels of inflammation over long periods of time contribute to a lot of major disease states, including the four major ones I just outlined. And increasingly there’s a growing connection between this chronic low-level inflammation and the likelihood of contracting those diseases or at least some correlation between inflammation and those diseases.

For example, LDL cholesterol is something that comes from saturated or trans fats. And once those oxidize in the arteries, you get an immune response which forms the plaques that are the real killers. So the plaques that ultimately kill people are able to be traced back to those inflammatory foods that cause that response.

TS: And how is this trend playing out in terms of technology and what innovations are happening around this?

TB: So, the way I think of the technology here, from a nutritional point of view, is kind of in the realm of ingredients, in the realm of coaching, and in the realm of biomarkers.

Obviously eating better ingredients improves health outcomes. For example, one of our portfolio companies is a company called Bonumose, which makes rare sugars at scale. These are sugars that have the sweetness profile of our favorite sucrose, but have much fewer calories and a much lower glycemic index, which makes the inflammatory response much lower. Ultimately, they’re much healthier for you. So on the ingredients front, I think there’s a lot going on that we’re interested in around reducing the impacts of sugar.

But apart from that, there’s also the coaching side, connecting people with chronic disease states to 24/7, 365 attention from nutritionists. These are people who are there whenever the patient needs them to consult on best practices from a nutritional standpoint. And one step beyond that is the coaching that not only uses a nutritionist around the clock, but also couples that with biomarkers. There are a couple of companies today using microbiome samples in conjunction with nutritionists to really optimize the coaching for the patient’s unique body and nutritional needs.

Those are the kinds of things we’re looking at but there are some other technologies we’ve looked at that aren’t directly related to nutrition per se. Such as devices measuring ketones in the blood or some therapeutics that are not nutritional but could enhance the microbiome or could limit the inflammatory response by one mechanism or another.

TS: Interesting. And all really based around the body’s natural response. It’s interesting stuff. Well, Tom, I appreciate the overview and I will talk to you later. Thanks.

TB: Great. Thanks, Tim.

Consideration

With 2021 well underway and with public markets still strong, we think it is an important time to highlight some of the key private market, venture investment themes that iSelect fund has identified for the year. We believe technologies transforming the Agriculture, Food and Wellness markets will flourish, with a focus on four areas: technologies that enable better food choices to drive better health outcomes, technologies that drive better, more profitable farm operations, technologies that drive the Consumerization of Healthcare, and biome-based treatment technologies. At iSelect, we invest for impact AND performance. We offer qualified investors access to emerging growth companies through our national venture capital strategy. Our unique structure allows our investors to continue to invest in these companies as they develop.

Timing

Why is now the right time for venture? The answer is that now is not explicitly the right time. Venture is something we need in our economy at all times. Now is not better than any other particular time. The question is, why ever stop? When we look at the challenges we’re facing in food and healthcare the reality is there is someone, somewhere who has an insight about how to build a product that will solve those problems. And if they put the right resources to it, they will succeed. As long as we need new technology to make life better or make our lives more enjoyable, we need venture capital to help fuel those entrepreneurs.

What is iSelect as a product?

iSelect is a very unique product, but when you break it into its parts it’s fairly easy to understand. On the front end we’re a traditional venture capital fund. We have a diligence process. We have an investment process. We have categories of industries where we have focus and real expertise, and we invest in companies in those areas that meet requirements for the fund. On the back end we’re unique in that we don’t raise a large amount of capital at one time and deploy it over the life of our fund. Each deal that we bring onto the fund, our investors have to prove and determine to invest in that deal. We have to constantly prove our diligence standards. It’s accessible, transparent and easy for investors to come in and see our comprehensive process.

What is the ideal iSelect company?

We are looking for founders that are passionate and we want the problem they’re trying to solve to be big, real, and painful. We want the solution to be revolutionary and we want our capital to be able to help them solve that problem. We want to know that they have customers involved and that the solution they’ve come up with actually meets those customers’ and market needs. And we want the team to be capital efficient with the money they’re spending.

What does the ideal iSelect company look like?

We’re looking for a company that has an opportunity to have a 10x return to our investment or greater in a period of three to seven years. What excites us at iSelect are companies that are solving big problems. We want companies that are going to be the Monsantos of the future. Not just in the size and the scope, but the impact they have on people’s lives. We want to create positive impacts on people’s lives, so we invest in areas like agricultural production and areas like producing healthy foods for our kids. They are problems that impact real people’s lives on a daily basis. That’s what we’re trying to do at iSelect. We’re trying to solve the big problems out there. Find ways to bring capital to the entrepreneurs who are the real heroes out there getting up every morning, beating away at these things that are problems that you and me and everyone else faces in their everyday lives.

What is iSelect?

iSelect is a venture capital firm. What that means is we look at hundreds and hundreds of different companies and we apply tough diligence standards to each of them, looking at whether the team has a good plan for growing the business, whether the team is qualified and credible, and more. We do that to resolve the few who provide the best opportunities for investors. And then iSelect takes that smaller set of investments and goes to investors who are interested in venture capital and provides a way for them to invest in these companies, either individually or all at once. We co-invest alongside other venture capitalists. We source transactions through to an exit where the company would become public or get bought. And we manage that whole investment process on behalf of our investors.