Case Study: Hexis Secures $2.0M to Revolutionise Sports Nutrition, Backed by Elite Athletes

00. Stats

Funding raised: $2 million

Beta-testers: 1000+

Favourite tools: Notion*, Whimsical, Figma, Google Suite

Company size: 10-20 employees

01. Introduction

Hexis, a pioneering personalised nutrition platform, is transforming the way athletes and fitness enthusiasts approach fuelling for exercise. By harnessing the power of artificial intelligence, Hexis is bridging the gap between complex scientific knowledge and practical application, empowering athletes to optimise their performance through data-driven nutrition decisions.

At the helm is CEO and co-founder David Dunne, a performance nutritionist whose passion for translating evidence-based research into practical, scalable solutions is the driving force behind Hexis’s innovative approach.

This business case study will delve into the unique aspects of Hexis Nutrition and the significant impact it’s making in the field of sports nutrition, where technology meets nutrition, and athletes worldwide are achieving their full potential.

In this case study we will cover:

• About the company
• How the idea was conceptualised
• Fundraising efforts
• Recommended tools for aspiring founders
• Books and resources

02. Financials

Hexis has achieved impressive fundraising success, securing a $2M pre-seed funding round. The Sports Business Journal report the key details:
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The round was co-led by:

• Apex Capital, an athlete-driven venture firm.
• Sport Republic, led by Rasmus Ankersen, with interests in soccer clubs across England, France, and Turkey.

Additional participants:

• Dopamine Sports Ventures.
• Several top athletes including Olympic medalists and Tour de France stage winners, one of whom is Bob Jungels.
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Stephen Moon, previously CEO of Science in Sport, has also joined Hexis's board. Furthermore, Professor James Morton, a renowned sports nutritionist with previous roles at Liverpool, Team Sky, and INEOS, is now advising Hexis.

APEX Capital Co-Founder Antonio Cacorino expressed strong conviction in Hexis, stating: "We chose these companies for their inspiring vision, but also because of our conviction in their team's ability to execute and navigate the markets they're targeting. Each founding team has highly relevant experience in their field and has a diversity of backgrounds and expertise." Source: vetted sports.

These successful fundraising rounds and the vote of confidence from experienced investors demonstrate the strong potential and capable leadership team behind Hexis. The company appears well-positioned financially to execute on its vision and growth plans in the sports technology market.

03. About the company

The company’s primary offering is a personalised nutrition platform that provides real-time, individualised nutrition insights. This platform is designed to help users optimise their dietary intake based on their workouts, lifestyle, and goals.

Hexis Nutrition provides minute-by-minute visual insights into energy status in real-time throughout the day. It goes beyond mere calorie tracking and offers predictive planning, personalisation, and periodisation of daily nutrition needs based on individual workouts, lifestyle, goals, and physical characteristics.

For coaches hexis offers all in one athlete management. Hexis provides tools for nutrition planning, tracking, analysing, and reporting—all in one place. Coaches can dive into athlete food logs and get automated nutrient analysis.

For athletes Hexis generates personalised fuel plans. Powered by Carb Codes, Hexis creates a dynamic fuel plan tailored to the demands of each workout, lifestyle, and goals. Athletes receive minute-by-minute insights into their energy balance, helping them track and predict what their bodies need for peak performance.

Hexis aims to democratise access to scientific breakthroughs, making these benefits available to athletes of all levels. So whether you’re a coach, an athlete, or a fitness enthusiast, Hexis is designed to maximise your full potential!

One of the key features of the Hexis platform is its ability to integrate seamlessly with a variety of wearable devices and fitness trackers, allowing athletes to automatically sync their training and biometric data. This data is then analysed using advanced algorithms and machine learning models to generate personalised nutrition plans and real-time feedback on fueling strategies. See their latest integration launch with trainingpeaks.

With a talented team of experts and multiple impressive fundraising seed rounds, Hexis is poised to redefine the landscape of sports nutrition.

04. The founders

The star-studded founder team at Hexis Performance brings together a diverse range of expertise to revolutionise sports nutrition.

CEO and Co-Founder David Dunne's academic background played a significant role in shaping the direction of the company. He earned his PhD in Behavior Change, Design Thinking, and Technology Innovation in Sports Nutrition from Liverpool John Moores University, focusing on translating evidence-based research into practical, scalable solutions—a philosophy that lies at the heart of Hexis's approach to personalised nutrition.

Joining Dunne is Co-Founder Dr. Sam Impey, a pioneering researcher and visionary in the field of sports science. Dr. Impey's groundbreaking research into the cellular and molecular adaptations to exercise-nutrition interactions during his PhD and postdoctoral work, along with his decade of experience supporting elite athletes worldwide, brings invaluable knowledge and expertise to the team. His seminal paper "Fuel For The Work Required" has become the operational paradigm across sports nutrition, shaping the way athletes approach fuelling for optimal performance.

Alongside Dunne and Impey, Dr. Rodrigo Mazzora Blanco, the Chief Financial Officer and Co-Founder, contributes over 25 years of diverse experience from startups and organisations. His expertise spans finance, technical product management, data science, and startup operations, ensuring Hexis's financial stability and strategic growth.

Dr. Xiaoxi Yan, the Chief Data Officer and Co-Founder, brings her knowledge as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Duke-NUS Medical School, where she focuses on statistical methodologies in modern trial designs for mHealth, specifically in developing dynamic treatment regimes (DTRs) or adaptive interventions. Xiaoxi's insights are invaluable in shaping Hexis's data-driven approach.

Together, this multidisciplinary team of experts is poised to transform the landscape of sports nutrition, combining their knowledge and experience to create a platform that delivers personalised, data-driven solutions for athletes and coaches worldwide.

05. The idea and first steps

During David Dunne's time as a sports nutritionist with the Harlequins rugby team, despite his efforts to educate the players, some struggled to consistently apply their nutritional knowledge due to a lack of motivation.

A conversation with a player who admitted, "I know what I should be doing, but I just can't seem to motivate myself," highlighted the disconnect between knowledge and action in the sports nutrition industry.

David realised that education alone was insufficient to drive lasting change. He recognised the need for a tool that would empower athletes to make better nutritional choices by influencing their motivation and decision-making.

On this podcast, co-founder Sam Impey mentioned that he had a friend at the University of Birmingham help him build an Excel sheet with some if/but statements. He could change a cell from hours of training from two to three, and there were four little cells at the bottom that would go red, amber, or green depending on the input. This was a bare-bones first concept of what he wanted the app to do.

The early ideation phase for Hexis stemmed from a combination of this spreadsheet, David's experience in professional sport, and a number of other experiences.

When Sam approached the startup accelerator hub at the University of Birmingham with his idea, someone there introduced him to the concept of wireframing. Wireframing is a crucial step in the app design process, where a basic visual guide is created to represent the layout, structure, and functionality of the app. It helps to plan the user interface and user experience without focusing on the visual design elements.

To go from wireframes to a functioning app, the following steps are typically involved:

1. Wireframing: Create basic visual representations of the app's layout and functionality.
2. Prototyping: Develop a prototype to simulate user flow and interactions for testing and feedback.
3. Visual Design: Create high-fidelity mockups incorporating colour schemes, typography, and iconography.
4. Development: Build the app using the wireframes, prototypes, and visual designs as a guide.
5. Testing and Refinement: Test the app for bugs and usability issues, and collect user feedback for improvements.
6. Launch: Submit the app to app stores for approval and release it for users to download.

Aspiring founders could seek the help of freelancers for making their first prototype.

06. Launching the business

DataSpartan, being experienced in building high performance platforms, worked with the Hexis team to help build their beta-product in 3 months. By using an agile process and a well defined roadmap with specific goals, DataSpartan helped Hexis deliver one of the most cutting edge products in the nutrition space.  Key highlights of the successful collaboration between the teams:

• Idea to prototype, DataSpartan helped the Hexis team to convert their visionary product roadmap into reality by designing the system architecture, data workflows and business logic for the beta-product.
• Implemented the beta-product platform (backend and frontend and mobile app (IOS and android).
• Worked with the Hexis team to optimise the ML models to generate better personalised recommendations.

Hexis and Data Spartan deployed the app on cloud microservices and beta tested it with thousands of users successfully in record time. The deployment of the beta-product provided a wealth of information to the Hexis team, strengthening the product for the Q1 2022 launch.

The Hexis beta system was rigorously tested by 1,000 users.

07. Growing the business

Sam Impey said on this podcast that in 2024, Hexis wants to focus on supporting elite athletes and clubs around the world. They are active globally, with conversations across Australia, Europe, and America. They have a natural fit closer to endurance sports and want to support a wide variety of endurance athletes globally. In 2025, they want to expand their direct-to-consumer offering, increasing brand awareness and helping more recreational athletes and day-to-day people with supporting their training.

They also plan to release a bunch of new features. You can view their public roadmap here.

08. Recommended tools

We spoke to co-founder of Hexis Dr. David Dunne and asked him what the team's favourite tools are. Amongst the Hexis team popular tools include:

• Notion* - project management and ideas
• Google suite - meetings google hangout
• Figma and Whimsical - design/wireframing
• Slack - communication
• Claude - text-based tasks

09. Books and resources

There are numerous valuable insights to be taken from this case study for aspiring sport science, fitness, and nutrition professionals. To avoid overwhelming you with book recommendations, I'd like to focus on one book that co-founder Dr. David Dunne consistently recommends: "Zero to One" by Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal. A common question that many nutrition professionals may have regarding Hexis is, "Will this technology replace my job? 😳" The answer to this question can be found within the pages of Thiel's book.

In "Zero to One," Peter Thiel argues that tech companies aiming to completely replace human workers are destined for failure. He illustrates this point by using LinkedIn as an example. If LinkedIn had attempted to entirely replace recruiters, it would have likely failed. Instead, LinkedIn created a powerful tool that enhances recruiters' abilities and efficiency. By complementing human skills rather than seeking to replace them, LinkedIn achieved remarkable success. The company's approach demonstrates that technology is most effective when it augments and supports human expertise rather than attempting to substitute it entirely.

10. Learn more

Visit the Hexis website here

Connect with CEO David on LinkedIn

Connect with CSO Sam Impey on LinkedIn

Check out the Hexis YouTube channel

Follow Hexis on Instagram

Join the Hexis newsletter

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