Mike Prytkov understands what it is like to let stress control your life. While building his first company, he worked long hours and gained weight. After exiting his adtech company, Appness, he tried many methods to lose the pounds, including extreme workouts, calorie tracking, and fasting. He found that while these methods worked, maintaining consistency was the difficult part. He realized he wanted a coach to keep him accountable. So in 2019, he launched Simple, an AI-powered health coaching app designed to help people lose weight. Then, in 2023, the company introduced its standout feature, an AI coach named Avo, which provides tailored advice based on user needs and progress.
Prytkov stated that the goal was to help people lose weight without the guilt or grind inherent in toxic diet culture. Having grown the company to its current state with 700,000 subscribers and 160 million dollars in annual recurring revenue, Simple announced it closed a 35 million dollar Series B funding round. This round was led by actor Kevin Hart’s HartBeat Ventures. The company has now raised a total of 45 million dollars in funding. Prytkov had an early co-founder who has since left the company, leaving him as the sole leader.
The AI coach, Avo, now handles more than 100,000 coaching conversations each day and processes nearly 300,000 daily meal logs. Users begin by filling out a form to build a personalized program and are then introduced to the AI coach. The coach collects information from user input, such as meal logs, and runs assessments that score habits and nutritional quality. The coaching is delivered through a chat powered by large language models that adapt tone and content to each person, with memory for long-term context and constitution-based fine-tuning.
The app is a direct competitor to popular behavioral dieting apps like Noom, as well as WeightWatchers and MyFitnessPal. Prytkov says Simple is different because it does not offer generic lessons or generally track calories, nor has it ventured into supplying GLP-1 medications. Instead, it provides personalized coaching. Avo adapts daily plans across nutrition, fasting, movement, and habits, while providing real-time meal feedback and tailored check-ins. The app does, however, help complement GLP-1 users and their medication, acting as a behavior engine that helps sustain routines after the medications stop.
Although the coaching premise of the app has remained unchanged, the rise of large language models has greatly enhanced personalization. AI has changed both the product and the business model. Every dialogue and every logged meal feeds a closed-loop learning system that updates each person’s profile and improves the company’s cohort-level models. With each iteration, Avo becomes more accurate and more proactive.
Prytkov said that HartBeat Ventures approached the company after it launched Avo two years ago. The firm already had several health investments. At the time, Simple was not actively looking for investors, but HartBeat Ventures felt like an amazing fit, so they agreed. The app already had strong metrics, profitability, and traction. Other participants in the funding round include the private credit firm Liquidity.
Prytkov believes users are drawn to the app because it does not feel clinical to them. He stated that virtual wellness has become the default front door for weight management because it is affordable and accessible. Next, he wants to expand the company’s GLP-1 companion features and launch specialized women’s health and midlife programs. Eventually, he plans to expand beyond weight loss to create a health app that can help with sleep, stress, and movement. The vision is to become the Duolingo of health. The goal is simple: become the go-to fun health companion people use every day, and the most effective way to build healthy habits.