Kilo's Pivot: From D2C Health Brand to Venture Studio Powerhouse

Dear Mobikolik.com readers, as consumer health trends increasingly shift towards longevity, quantified wellness, and personalized nutrition, Kilo, one of Europe's fastest-growing health tech companies, is strategically repositioning itself for this next wave. Founded in 2013 and then known as Kilo Health, the company impressively rose to become the second-fastest-growing company in Europe by 2022.

After successfully building direct-to-consumer health brands used by over 10 million people worldwide, the Lithuanian company is now evolving into what CEO Žygimantas Surintas calls a “high-velocity venture studio.” This means Kilo will be co-founding startups and investing in early-stage companies across the health, longevity, beauty, and travel sectors. In 2024, the company reported consolidated revenue of €234 million and an EBITDA of €11 million, showcasing a remarkable trajectory of growth.

Kilo's strategic rebrand from Kilo Health to simply Kilo signifies much more than just a name change. Surintas describes it as "clarifying who we are," indicating a deliberate effort to define their role as an investor, managing partner, co-founder, or financial partner. The CEO emphasizes that their key advantage lies in speed, backed by a strong foundation to launch businesses quickly and extensive knowledge gleaned from years in the health tech space.

This robust infrastructure is formalized through Kiloverse, Kilo's internal ecosystem. Kiloverse provides founders with invaluable access to marketing expertise, advanced technology tools, global partnerships, and specialized R&D, nutrition, and research teams. The company primarily works with builders in health and wellness, supporting them from the MVP stage all the way through to scale. Investment tickets typically range from €50,000 to €1 million, with potential follow-on funding of up to €10 million. To date, Kilo has invested over €10 million in external startups, alongside nearly double that in its own R&D and product development.

While Kilo operates across diverse markets like health, wellness, beauty, and travel, Surintas points out that these markets share significant commonalities: they often target the mid-market and cater to more mature customers. This specific focus allows Kilo to accumulate extensive data and understanding regarding these consumers' needs, interests, and problems they can solve. The CEO highlights that this approach enables them to be very specific about their market entry, rather than going too broad.

Looking ahead to AI integration, Kilo plans to invest up to €20 million in AI development over the next three years, with an ambitious target of $1 billion in consolidated annual revenue. However, Surintas notes a deliberate caution in adopting new technologies too quickly. He recounted a "hard lesson" from a competitor who automated media buying with machine learning and cut over half their team, only to see sales drop by 40 percent. While acknowledging AI's immense potential, Surintas believes it should be introduced gradually, not treated as a "silver bullet."

In terms of what's next in the health and wellness space, Surintas contends that longevity will be a significant shift. He believes the longevity market has reached a turning point where people are educated enough to discuss mass products that are proven and effective. Kilo plans to introduce four or even five longevity products this year, preferring to invest where there is early traction and strong initial data rather than at the pure idea stage. He adds that Kilo's 12 years of data and learning in this business are central to their decision-making, and the importance of data only grows as machine learning improves.

Surintas views Kilo's independence as its greatest achievement, noting that the company reached its current standing without external funding. They expect to close 2025 at around €500 million in revenue, still without external investment. However, he also candidly shares that their biggest failure is linked to this success: growing too fast. When market turbulence hit, it was challenging to control and adjust the business quickly, but this experience ultimately made the company stronger and more consistent, focusing on less but with better quality.

For founders considering the venture side, Surintas's advice is direct: embrace help and don't try to protect all equity early on. "You can have 100 per cent of something very small, or less than 100 per cent of something very big." He emphasizes, "For us, it's not your idea we need. It's you. We want strong partners we can grind with. We don't look for hustlers. We look for grinders." Kilo's ambitions for the next phase are both bold and pragmatic: to reach €1 billion in revenue within the next few years while maintaining strong high-digit profitability, and expanding into new markets like travel and longevity. "We want consistency – not chasing the latest FOMO. Our goal is a stable, strong business."