Hi.Q is a Mountain View, California-based startup eyeing the “quantified self” space. Created by the Like.com founder and serial entrepreneur Munjal Shah, the service wows to explain users what (let’s say) each can of soda does to their bodies.

Available for iPhone users from the Apple App Store, the application uses quizzes to engage people around their health and wellness. Users will be asked to answer some sneaky multiple choice questions, and get further information around the right answer.

Only 21% of Americans have sufficient knowledge to take control of their health.Right now, Hi.Q’s database has more than 10,000 “experiential” questions across 300 topic areas, certified by over 30 experts from various fields of medicine, nutrition and exercise.

Said questions have already been tested on 250,000 individuals to find out what parts of a person’s health knowledge are most important to long-term health. Initial results revealed that only 21% of Americans had sufficient knowledge to take control of their health. Considering the fact that the more knowledgeable a person is about their health, the more likely they are to stay healthy – there’s a huge space for services like Hi.Q.

“The last hundred years were spent increasing the linguistic literacy of the world – our challenge now is to increase the world’s health literacy in the next century, and the Hi.Q assessment is the first step in reaching that goal,” Shah said.

Hi.Q was founded last year, and has raised $5.5 million from Charles River Ventures, First Round Capital, Greylock Partners, Menlo Ventures, Rock Health, and Western Technology Investments.

[Via: VentureBeat, WSJ]