Olympic medalist and DNAfit co-founder Andrew Steele secured £4.6 million in seed capital for HealthTech Stride, a Norwich-based diagnostics-focused preventative health membership.
UK’s first diagnostics-driven preventative health membership
Since its launch in May 2024, Stride has introduced a full health service that integrates DNA, blood, and gut health testing with tailored insights and sophisticated diagnostics. The goal is to empower users to analyze their personal health metrics more thoroughly and make better choices regarding their well-being and physical capabilities.
The round includes investment from Arāya Ventures, Morgan Stanley Inclusive & Sustainable Ventures, Better Ventures, Innovate UK, and an a16z Scout Fund investor, alongside a group of angel investors.
Building a preventative health platform
The additional capital will fund the development of a leading preventative health platform designed to offer personalized, forward-looking health management tools. This will encourage users to take a more active role in maintaining their health. Additionally, Stride plans to roll out its membership program, Stride One, to international markets before year’s end.
Andrew Steele brings over ten years of expertise at the overlap of elite athletic performance, genetics, and overall health. As a former Team GB sprinter, he competed in the 400m and 4x400m relay for 13 years, earning a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
After retiring from competition, Steele co-founded DNAfit, a company specializing in personal genetics, which was later acquired by Prenetics in 2018. He then played a key role in expanding the business across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa before Prenetics’ successful NASDAQ listing in 2022.
Stride is also venturing into high-end wellness and longevity initiatives, collaborating with luxury partners like Triple Bond at The Botree Hotel and LongLane, an alcohol-free biohacking retreat. At these locations, Stride’s testing methods are being used to customize experiences for members.
The company has received Innovate UK funding for two new initiatives: one aims to refine a multiomic method for assessing biological age, while the other involves creating an AI-driven health assistant. This tool synthesizes lab results, wearable device data, medical records, and other health-related information to provide highly individualized recommendations and support.
“The scale of the opportunity is huge. If you could somehow eliminate cancer completely, studies suggest that would add only around three years to average lifespan. The much bigger opportunity is preventing multiple diseases in the first place, by changing everyday health behaviours earlier and at scale.”
