Following successful validation, the AI-driven bioactive discovery company announces $3.6 mm round to scale next-gen food-as-medicine metabolic health solutions
TEL AVIV, Israel, June 11, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Lembas (www.hellolembas.com), an AI-powered bioactive peptide discovery company, has emerged from stealth mode with a scientific breakthrough in activating GLP-1 - the key hormone that helps regulate appetite and metabolism. The company closed an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round of $3.6 mm led by FLORA Ventures, who also incubated the company, with participation from a group of leading venture capital funds Bluestein Ventures, Fresh Fund, Longevity Venture Partners, Maia Ventures, Siddhi Capital, Mandi Ventures and SDH.
Nearly 75% of US adults are overweight or obese*, but the new GLP-1 pharmaceuticals are out of reach for many due to lack of accessibility, prohibitive costs, and severe side effects. This creates an urgent opportunity for the food and supplements industries to provide evidence-based solutions that help consumers manage their weight more naturally and effectively.
Lembas is pioneering the next generation of science-backed bioactive ingredients for the functional food and supplements industry, with its first solution, GLP-1 Edge, targeting the $560B** global weight management industry. GLP-1 Edge is designed to naturally regulate appetite by enhancing the body's own GLP-1 response. It integrates easily into bars, shakes, snacks, beverages and supplements, bringing metabolic health into consumers' everyday routines.
The company's proprietary computational AI discovery platform rapidly screens, analyzes and designs food-grade bioactive peptides that work with the natural metabolic mechanisms. In less than a year, Lembas discovered and designed food-grade bioactives that demonstrated positive cell and animal model results, stimulating successfully GLP-1 secretion to blood.
While Lembas' initial focus is on natural GLP-1 for weight management and metabolic health, its computational platform has been developed to accelerate the discovery of new science-backed functional ingredients across a broader pipeline of health and wellbeing benefits.
Founded in 2024, Lembas is backed by a licensed university patent pending technology and led by an accomplished team of serial entrepreneurs and interdisciplinary scientists: Shay Hilel (CEO), Dr. Zohar Barbash (CTO), Prof. Maayan Gal (CSO) and Dr. Daniel Bar. Its executive team and board consist of seasoned senior executives from PepsiCo, Mondelez, IFF, Shiru and Brightseed, including Rob Hargrove, former Chief R&D Officer at Mondelez.
"At Lembas, we're creating a new category of science-backed nutrition, empowering consumers for the first time to effectively and conveniently manage their weight through companion food and supplements without pricy prescriptions, injections, and unpleasant side effects," said Shay Hilel, Co-Founder and CEO of Lembas. "Our early validation and the strong interest from global food and supplement companies shows there is a massive unmet need for our GLP-1 Edge solution, that works naturally with the body, not against it."
Gil Horsky, Founding Chairman of Lembas and Managing Partner FLORA Ventures: "As a longtime food industry executive and investor in the space, I believe the discovery of GLP-1 is the biggest disruptor the food industry has faced in decades. Lembas is the first science-backed company enabling food players to seize this disruptive opportunity by setting a new bar for food-as-medicine." Horsky added: "We're combining deep-tech with cutting edge science to unlock a scalable, credible path to make functional food actually functional."
With this funding, Lembas will accelerate scale-up and commercialization of its GLP-1 Edge bioactive, expand its AI discovery platform, and deepen commercial agreements across the ingredients, food and supplements value chain.
About Lembas
Lembas is an AI-powered discovery company pioneering the next generation of science-backed bioactives for the functional food and supplements industry, with its first solution, GLP-1 Edge, targeting the $560B global weight management industry. Backed by university-patented research and a proprietary AI computational platform, Lembas is building a scalable pipeline of food-grade bioactive ingredients that unlock the potential of food as medicine. For more information, please visit www.hellolembas.com, LinkedIn.
Sources
*Agrawal, N. Three-Quarters of U.S. Adults Are Now Overweight or Obese. The New York Times. November 14, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/14/well/obesity-epidemic-america.htm.
**IMARC Group https://www.imarcgroup.com/weight-management-market?.
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