Several venture capital companies, including Detroit-based Detroit Venture Partners and Union Heritage Ventures, helped Chiyo, a maternal nutrition company, complete a $3 million financing round.

The other companies were Bread & Butter Ventures in Minnesota, Ingeborg in Arkansas, Peterson Ventures in Utah, Palette Ventures in New York, and The Helm in New York City.

The company has raised a total of $3.4 million in funding to fuel its mission of providing better maternal nutrition. Among Chiyo’s backers are Aimee Song, the former CFO of Momofuku Elizabeth Chrystal; Jing from Fly by Jing in Los Angeles; and Vanessa Dew, co-founder of Health-Ade in Torrance, Calif.

Chiyo provides nutritional care for each stage of a woman’s reproductive life cycle as seen through a food is medicine lens. The company has served 100,000 meals since launching in 2021 and grew 300 percent in the last year while expanding to a nationwide model.

The company works with more than 100 women’s health practitioners and is focused on providing all-encompassing maternal nutrition support from beginning to end as they look to serve the whole person.

With this latest round of funding, Chiyo will build its digital platform for personalized customer self-guided content and nutrition programs. It will also scale its distribution through clinics and its practitioner community and invest in additional research that proves that food is medicine.

Chiyo’s newly launched personalized nutrition platform should enable better personalized nutrition curricula, guidance, and community coaching. Users will be able to rate each solution’s efficacy and help contribute to a first-of-its-kind research database of nutrition for women’s health.

Rooted in nutritional science with a blend of Eastern food therapy, Chiyo offers stage-based and symptom-specific nutrition programs across fertility and postpartum recovery.

Recent data supports the argument and shows that:

• There is a 50 percent+ decrease in preterm birth rates across labor and delivery hospital units that participated in coordinated holistic care programs between 2014-2010.
• 77 percent of clinicians agree nutrition should be included in routine primary care visits. ]
• 94 percent agree it’s their obligation to discuss nutrition with patients but only 14 percent feel adequately trained to provide nutrition counseling.
• 4x increased probability of a successful pregnancy with a preconception diet by couples undergoing IVF/ICSI treatment (odds ratio 1.4 with 95 percent confidence).
• 66 percent decrease in risk of infertility related to ovulatory disorders (and 27 percent due to other causes) demonstrated by women with a higher intake of a fertility diet.

“My vision for Chiyo has always been rooted in bringing food-as-medicine to the forefront and rely on it for the different life stages of a woman’s health journey,” says Irene Liu, co-founder and CEO of Chiyo. “I’m incredibly excited for the folks we have around us to further build out this vision and build the path to accessibility – while we help educate on the impact nutrition has on generational health. Chiyo’s $3 million funding will fuel our mission to revolutionize maternal nutrition and support for new parents in America.”

Co-founder and chief culinary officer Jennifer Jolorte Doro says that as a mother, certified nutritionist and lactation consultant, the company is invested in the well-being of women.

“Having personally witnessed the transformative power of nutritional wellness during postpartum, I’ve dedicated myself to helping our customers thrive in their motherhood journey,” says Jolorte Doro. “Now, with this investment, we’re excited to take our expertise to a wider audience, ensuring that every mother across America can access the comprehensive support she deserves on her unique path to wellness.”

To learn more about the campaign, visit mothering.wearechiyo.com/, and to learn more about Chiyo, visit wearechiyo.com.