Israeli start-up develops plant-based nutrition bars targeting stress relief
Israeli-based personalised nutrition start-up myAir, has developed a series of plant-based nutrition bars with a formulation containing botanical blend designed to deliver a specific stress-release effect.
As the business explained to Confectionery Production, the proprietary herbal extract blends are based on deep profiling machine learning technology and are tailored to the consumer’s unique stress profile and cognitive needs.
The myAir concept was created by two founders: Rachel Yarcony, a former C-Level executive at Teva Pharmaceuticals, Nestlé, and Strauss Group. With a track record in CPG brands, she founded myAir in 2019 together with Dovev Goldstein, a personalised technology and media expert and seasoned entrepreneur who led three media and marketing technology companies to success.
Together, with a team of experienced executives and scientists from the pharmaceutical, food, and technology industries, they are introducing to market the first personalised nutrition concept for stress management, creating a long-term health regime based on ongoing monitoring and rooted in data. myAir bars are certified vegan and kosher and gluten-free.
Notably, the start-up has already $2 million pre-seed investment from Tel-Aviv University Ventures, iAngels VC, and Entrée Capital.
Even before the COVID pandemic hit, the World Health Organisation had declared stress a global epidemic. Stress is linked to the six leading causes of death in the world, and in the US alone is estimated to cost American businesses up to $300 billion each year. According to the American Institute of Stress, 83% of US workers suffer from work-related stress.
“As an executive manager and a mother, stress had become a massive burden in my life. I tried to manage my stress through meditation and mindfulness, but I failed to maintain stress management in my routine,” says Rachel Yarcony, Founder and Co-CEO of myAir. “Good nutrition is a key to managing stress naturally. This spurred me to seek a natural solution and develop a ‘food for mood’ solution that consumers can easily merge into their daily routine to help take control of their health and manage their personal stress levels.”
“Stress has many facets,” adds Dovev Goldstein, myAir founder and Co-CEO. “In our preliminary study, based on AI, we discovered that different consumers generally have different stress symptoms that are more dominant than the others. For example, stress affects me mainly in the mornings, so my energy levels and focus are decreased. My partner feels the stress at night and occasionally has problems getting fulfilling sleep. Each of us needs a personalised solution. This is where myAir has redefined the paradigm.”
