After deal talks lasting almost a year, MyFitnessPal has successfully acquired its up-and-coming rivaI Cal AI.
Cal AI is the AI calorie counting app startup built by two high school teenagers that soared to over 15 million downloads and over $30 million in annual revenue in under two years, MyFitnessPal tells TechCrunch.
The Cal AI team of seven employees, including its co-founder CEO Zach Yadegari (pictured, above), plus a small team of contractors, have been retained by MyFitnessPal, according to MyFitnessPal CEO Mike Fisher.
The Cal AI app will remain independent, with its same ease-of-use mission: estimating calories by taking pictures of food. One upgrade for Cal AI users has occurred already since the deal closed in December: the AI app has now been integrated with MFP’s monster huge nutrition database. That database spans 20 million foods, 68,500 brands, and meals served at 380+ restaurant chains.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed except that Fisher noted that since the Cal AI team didn’t have to sell, they were happy with the offer. With that $30 million revenue number, we can make an educated guess that this was a good outcome for the now 19-year-old co-founders, Yadegari, and his high school friend Henry Langmack.
In fact, the deal took considerable perseverance, Fisher said. The larger company noticed Cal AI as it started to rise in the ranks on the app store, visible through tools like Sensor Tower, he said.
“We watch the entire competitor suite,” Fisher said, which, he said, encompasses some 70 competitors big and small. “They definitely caught our eye, I would say, early last year, and we have been talking to them ever since, on and off.”
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