Maurten is taking its research and technology-focused approach to nutrition into a new era with the acquisition of metabolic science startup Calorify.
The Swedish nutrition brand will boost its ambition from being mostly a sports-fuel brand to becoming a much more comprehensive, science-driven performance and nutrition company.
No terms of the deal, which was first revealed on November 3, were made public and the addition of Calorify has led to the creation of the in-house M. Labs to broaden Maurten’s research capabilities.
“Hydrogel Technology increased the fuel an athlete can take in,” Maurten CEO Olof Sköld said. “Calorify shows what they burn. Together, there’s a lot less guessing. And what that makes possible is what excites us most.”
Calorify is based in Scotts Valley, California and was founded in December 2021 by Dr. Hari Mix and John McGuire and specializes in metabolic health testing and measurement of the body’s energy expenditure.
Mix will remain with Maurten and lead the M. Labs research unit.
“I started Calorify because the gold standard metabolic measurement was only available in a handful of academic labs,” Mix said. “Maurten has the vision and resources to take our technology much further. Joining them is the natural next step in our mission to make the human energy budget something anyone can measure — and improve.”
Maurten was founded in 2015 in Gothenburg, Sweden and is among a crowded field of gel brands but has largely targeted the performance and elite area of the market, forged strong relationships with elite marathon runners and made science a key part of its identity.
By 2016, the company began fueling elite endurance athletes, which initially helped increase its visibility ahead of the launch of the GEL 100, its flagship hydrogel energy gel.
A major partnership with Eliud Kipchoge in 2018 was critical for Maurten, with the brand riding the momentum of his marathon dominance of crucial moments like Kipchoge’s 2:01:39 world record at the Berlin Marathon in 2018.
The Calorify acquisition will be critical to Maurten differentiating itself through proprietary metabolic science and athlete-specific data.
