Israeli company Lumen, which has developed a wearable device to measure metabolism through respiration, announced Thursday that it has raised $62 million in a Series B funding round led by Pitango Venture Capital. Participating investors include Disruptive VC, Unorthodox Ventures, Hanwha Group, Resolute Ventures, RiverPark Ventures, and Almeda Ventures.
Lumen, which employs about 110 people, has raised $77 million to date. The company was founded in 2014 by sisters Dr. Merav Mor and Dr. Michal Mor, along with entrepreneurs Avi Smila (CIO), Dror Ceder (Chief Growth Officer), and Daniel Tal Mor (CEO).
The Mor sisters came up with the idea of measuring metabolism through respiration during their doctoral studies at Ben-Gurion University when they realized how wide the gap was between academic knowledge and practical implementations.
Lumen is a subscription service that includes an app and a device, which reveals the state of the user’s metabolism and shows the impact of nutrition and lifestyle on the body.
The number of people using Lumen to improve their metabolic health has grown 500% in the last year alone, and the company says it has achieved annual revenues in the tens of millions of dollars. Currently, more than 2 million metabolic measurements are performed monthly at home or on the go with the Lumen handheld device. Traditionally, this process was only available in hospitals and clinics through an expensive 45-minute lab test.
“The first three years were focused on developing the device that can provide measurements with a single breath,” the Mor sisters told Calcalist. “Three years ago our technology was validated by research conducted at San Francisco State University and in April 2020 we began selling the product. Most of our users want to lose weight, but we believe we can also enter the market of people looking to improve their health.”
Since its inception, Lumen has been committed to investing in clinical research related to the most pressing health issues in its community. Over the past year, the company has conducted research studies in various health fields with top-tier academic institutions, including the Whistler Center for Carbohydrate Research at Purdue University, the College of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Toronto and ARU Cambridge.
“Understanding the impact of nutrition, exercise, sleep and stress on your metabolism is key to reaching your health goals,” said Daniel Tal, CEO and co-founder of Lumen. “One of the things we are most excited about is allowing people to take care of the ‘body engine,’ which is our metabolism. Over the past year, Lumen customers have been discovering what types of food they should eat and what habits they should change or maintain.”
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