Dacadoo (B): Building Momentum

For the past ten years, dacadoo, a healthtech and insurtech start-up based in Switzerland, has been developing and operating its digital health engagement solution, including mobile applications, exploring ways to monetize the patented and AI-based health score it developed. Dacadoo has a dual objective: It aims to help users achieve and maintain healthy lifestyles with its proprietary “health score” and a digital health engagement solution, while at the same time it seeks to drive digital transformation of the insurance industry, with a focus on life and health insurers. As dacadoo has moved from being a start-up into a high-growth phase, this case series explores which business model(s) will help the company grow to its full potential. In 2010, Peter Ohnemus, a serial entrepreneur who had already built sixteen companies, took some well-deserved time off after the sale of his last successful venture. During this “between ventures” break in Verbier, he noticed his health had improved after two weeks of ski touring, but he could not quantify exactly how much he had progressed. That is when a new idea came to him: How to score human health holistically, encompassing physical health, mental wellbeing and lifestyle. Peter came down from the mountains and started a new company, which led to dacadoo.