After seven years in media and venture capital (VC) with Jason Calacanis’ Launch in Silicon Valley, Presh Dineshkumar has returned to Toronto to build a consumer healthtech business.

Dineshkumar left Launch in 2024 and teamed up with childhood friend and software developer Dray Williams to found The Wellness Company (TWC) as a product studio that develops health applications. Since 2025, TWC has rolled out four mobile apps designed to help people live healthier lives; collectively, they have attracted tens of thousands of users, over 10,000 paying customers, and more than six figures in annual recurring revenue.

“[Jason] took a bet on me early in my career, and I’m eternally grateful that his support has continued into this next chapter with The Wellness Company.”

In a related development, tWC’s first three apps focus on very specific use cases: cold plunge- and sauna-tracking (GoPolar), daily sunlight exposure monitoring (SunSeek), and posture and mobility improvement (Posture AI).

But Dineshkumar is betting that the startup’s fourth and most recent—an AI companion called Tempo to help users create personalized plans to achieve specific health goals like losing weight, completing a marathon, or sleeping better—will be TWC’s most impactful.

The TWC CEO declared in an exclusive interview with BetaKit that TWC has closed nearly $1.6 million CAD in seed funding to support its evolution from a collection of individual apps into a more focused consumer health startup, with Tempo as its central operating system.

Furthermore, tWC plans to use this funding to grow its three-person team, as well as invest in AI and the rollout of Tempo, which users can interact with directly through iMessage. The app uses AI to help clients gather and synthesize data from TWC’s other apps, their wearables, and diet, habit, and lab information inputs. Tempo leverages this data to help customers track their progress and recommend practical steps towards achieving their health targets.

The round, which closed in August and was raised via simple agreements for future equity, was led by BDC Capital’s Seed Venture Fund, with support from Toronto’s BKR Capital, Launch, and undisclosed angel investors Dineshkumar met during his time at Launch. It brings the startup’s total funding to more than $2 million.

Nearly a decade ago, Dineshkumar dropped out of Ontario Tech University to join Launch, a San Francisco-based early-stage tech startup accelerator and VC firm founded and led by Calacanis, a prolific US entrepreneur-turned-angel-investor.

Additionally, at Launch, Dineshkumar started on the media side, helping with marketing for the This Week In Startups and All-In podcasts and events. He later moved to the company’s VC team, where he supported early-stage tech entrepreneurs as co-director of its Founder University program and rose to chief of staff.

“Presh was my right hand at the Launch fund doing anything I needed, from technical work to working with founders, finding new investments, and helping me run Launch Accelerator,” Calacanis told BetaKit over email.

Dineshkumar had long focused on living a healthy lifestyle and always wanted to build a company of his own. He began developing his own health-focused side projects during his time at Launch, including an iMessage gratitude journal and a meditation product.

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“Without good health, you just can’t perform well, or you can’t be there for other people and do the things that you actually want to do,” Dineshkumar noted.

This led him to start TWC, which Launch incubated and became the first investor in, alongside Fahd Ananta’s Roach Capital.

In the broader context, “Selfishly, I would have liked to keep Presh at the firm, but one of the consequences of working at an early-stage venture firm is that your people get inspired to start their own companies and sometimes even their own funds,” Calacanis expressed. “When people do make that decision, I try to be magnanimous and do the next best thing, which is to seed their new projects.”

Dineshkumar credited Calacanis for giving him his “first real opportunity in startups,” adding, “I didn’t know anyone in tech, but I listened to his podcast … and eventually DM’d him on Twitter trying to get a job. He took a bet on me early in my career, and I’m eternally grateful that his support has continued into this next chapter with [TWC].”

Feature image courtesy The Wellness Company.