Our story
Experienced healthcare entrepreneurs and co-founders Rich Andrews and Jose Santos share a common vision: They want to sustainably reduce the devastating worldwide rates of morbidity and mortality associated with eating disorders.
Founded in 2024, Univa is on a mission to create evidence-based clinical tools that address the harmful impact of eating disorder conditions on the individual as well as their families. Tools that empower healthcare systems to sustainably deliver exceptional care.
Univa is paving the way for a universal healthcare structure that enables anyone, anywhere, from any socioeconomic background to access high quality eating disorders care without waiting and through a channel of their choosing.
Rich Andrews
Co-founder and CEO
Jose Santos
Co-founder and CTO
Rich brings over 20 years of healthcare experience to Univa. It is his passion for solving healthcare’s many pain points to make a real difference to people’s lives that really motivates him everyday.
Rich founded Healios in 2012, his first healthtech company, after witnessing close family members and friends suffering from mental health and neurological conditions struggle to access appropriate support. Rich led Healios to become the largest digital behavioural health clinic in the UK for managing the complex needs of children and adolescents impacted by mental health and/or neurodevelopmental conditions. He later expanded the company into the US under the brand name Meliora Health.
While leading Healios, Rich became more and more aware of the growing number of referrals to the company that had disordered eating challenges. He felt a new company that was hyper specialised to tackle the complexity of eating disorder conditions was needed more than ever. Univa was born!
Jose Santos
Co-founder and CTO
Jose is a serial entrepreneur and tech leader designing innovative health solutions over the past 11 years. Jose worked with Rich in the early days of Healios to build the first technology components of the service. Since then, he founded Adhera, a digital health consultancy company where he built innovative solutions for non-gubernamental organisations and pharmaceutical companies.
After his wife was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2017, Jose co-founded Indivi (formerly Healios AG) a MedTech company where he devised and led the technology roadmap of dreaMS, one of the world’s first CE-approved digital biomarkers software as a medical device to help people dealing with Multiple Sclerosis and their neurologists to better track and manage their condition.
Jose became acutely aware of the crippling effects of eating disorders after seeing family friends struggling with the illness. Since then he’s been motivated to find the most innovative solutions to address the difficulties families have of accessing great care.
Our Vision
Univa has created a different path forward where personalised, evidence-based care is available instantly, continuously, and exactly when you need it. Whether you're navigating anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, ARFID, or any other eating disorder, we believe care should be:
Univa brings these principles to life through technology that connects, rather than replaces, human care - creating a support system that understands your struggles, celebrates your progress, and remains by your side every step of the way.
Created from experience. Guided by science.
Univa emerged from a powerful collaboration - bringing together those who've personally navigated eating disorders, dedicated clinicians who've guided countless recoveries, and families who've supported loved ones through their darkest moments.
This deep understanding shapes everything we do:
Our care approaches reflect cutting-edge clinical research and gold-standard clinical practices
Our support features address real-world challenges identified by those with lived experience
Our family resources provide practical solutions developed alongside dedicated carers
Our communication style has been carefully crafted to foster trust and hope
Our communication style has been carefully crafted to foster trust and hope
Every element of the Univa platform - from daily check-ins to care modules - balances evidence-based methodology with genuine compassion, ensuring you receive care that's both scientifically sound and profoundly human.
