Kurbo Health has raised $5.8 million to fight child obesity with its app

Kurbo Health today announced the launch of Kurbo, the first safe and effective program to tackle the childhood obesity epidemic using mobile tools. For the first time, children, teens and their parents have access to a safe, effective and proven mobile platform for losing weight. Incorporating smartphone apps, virtual feedback and live, personalized coaching, Kurbo teaches kids, teens and their families how to eat healthier and lose weight. Kurbo is based on the Stanford University Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital’s renowned pediatric obesity program, one of the best programs in the country with an 80 percent success rate for participants.

Kurbo Health, a mobile subscription service focused on fighting childhood obesity through the use of simple food diaries and live coaching, is today opening its doors to all families who want to sign up and try its weight loss program, initially available as an iOS application. The company also just closed on $5.8 million in Series A funding from Signia Venture Partners, Data Collective, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Promus Ventures, as well as Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube, and Greg Badros, former VP Engineering and Product at Facebook. The startup first made its debut at this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York, where co-founder and CEO Joanna Strober explained how the idea for this kind of system – the first mobile weight loss program for kids – grew out of her own experiences trying to help her son find a program that worked for him. The one that did the trick was Stanford’s Pediatric Weight Loss Program, which, though effective, Strober described as being “1970’s tech” with “paper and pencil and in-person visits.”