NemaLife
NemaLife is a TechBio company using AI-powered C. elegans screening and microfluidics to accelerate bioactive ingredient discovery and validation for food, nutraceutical, microbiome, and pharmaceutical companies.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2018
- HeadquartersLubbock, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What NemaLife does
NemaLife, Inc. is a privately held TechBio discovery company headquartered in Lubbock, Texas, founded in 2018 by Siva Vanapalli, Ph.D. (CEO), Nicole Vanapalli, and Mizanur Rahman, Ph.D. (CTO). The company has built an AI-powered, microfluidics-based in vivo screening platform that uses the microscopic nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism to evaluate bioactive ingredients for human health applications. Its technology stack combines organism-on-chip microfluidics (NemaLife chip, NemaFlex), computer-vision phenotyping, and multi-omic data integration through products including the Discovery Flywheel, Efficacy Matrix visualization tool, and the newly launched BioSēq™ transcriptomics platform. C. elegans is leveraged for its high genetic homology to humans (60-80% of human genes; 42% of disease-causing genes), its exclusion from animal testing regulations in the US and EU, and its ability to deliver preclinical efficacy data in under 100 days compared with years for rodent models.
NemaLife operates as a B2B preclinical research services provider targeting food, nutraceutical, microbiome, and pharmaceutical companies seeking to discover and validate bioactive compounds, de-risk R&D, and substantiate health claims. The company pursues a consultative, sales-led enterprise GTM motion with direct engagement, website-based consultation booking, and participation in industry events such as SupplySide Global, Probiota, and the NutraHealthspan Summit. Its revenue model combines fee-for-service preclinical research with a longer-term licensing/royalties stream tied to internally developed bioactive assets (starting with probiotics and postbiotics enabled by a $300K NCCIH/NIH grant in October 2024). The company has secured cumulative non-dilutive funding of roughly $620K across NIH institutes, holds multiple granted patents on its platform components, and was awarded the 2025 Nutra HealthSpan Summit Innovator Award. It maintains 11-50 employees, a Strategic Advisory Board chaired by Nestlé/EPF Lausanne veteran Martin Kussmann, and a leadership team expanded by Chief Business Officer Marton Toth to support commercial scaling.
NemaLife firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- NemaLife
- Legal name
- NemaLife, Inc.
- Website
- https://nemalifeinc.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2018
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- NemaLife is a TechBio company using AI-powered C. elegans screening and microfluidics to accelerate bioactive ingredient discovery and validation for food, nutraceutical, microbiome, and pharmaceutical companies.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
NemaLife industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Preclinical Research Services
- NAICS
- Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714)
- SIC
- Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Services-Medical Laboratories (8071)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Organoids & Organ-on-Chip (regenerative models) (HLAAAGAD)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- In Vitro Model Systems & Organoid Platforms (iPSC/organoids, microphysiological systems) (HLAAAIAJ), Nematode & Pest Diagnostics Services (AFACAKAH)
Keywords
Where NemaLife is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Lubbock
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
NemaLife business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel
Revenue model
- Preclinical Research Services: NemaLife provides preclinical testing services to companies in the food, nutraceutical, microbiome, and pharma industries. They partner with companies to accelerate ingredient discovery and development using their AI-powered platform, helping validate health claims and screen bioactive compounds.
- Bioactive Asset Development: NemaLife develops internal discovery programs to create new bioactive assets that can be commercialized, with probiotics and postbiotics as a natural starting point given market traction.
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels1 record
Marketing channels5 records
NemaLife product offering
Product offeringCore offering
NemaLife provides preclinical research services using an AI-powered organism-on-chip platform that combines C. elegans nematodes, microfluidics automation, and visual AI to screen bioactive ingredients for health benefits including stress resilience, cognitive health, gut health, metabolic health, muscle performance, and longevity. The company partners with food, nutraceutical, microbiome, and pharmaceutical companies to accelerate ingredient discovery, validate health claims, and develop multi-ingredient formulations backed by in vivo proof.
Product overview
NemaLife offers a unified platform-plus-services architecture centered on its patented AI-powered bio-intelligence platform. The core technology combines C. elegans organism-on-chip testing with microfluidics and visual AI. Key products include the Discovery Flywheel for multi-dimensional bioactive screening and the Efficacy Matrix for visualizing results, plus BioSēq™ transcriptomics for mechanistic insights. Formulation Intelligence provides custom formulation development services. Together, these enable rapid pre-clinical evaluation of bioactives from discovery through to human study-ready candidates.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Bio-intelligence Platform Proprietary AI-powered organism-on-chip platform integrating Nobel Prize-backed C. elegans nematodes, microfluidics automation, and visual AI to provide high-throughput in vivo screening of bioactive ingredients for human health benefits. Sold to enterprise customers in the food, nutraceutical, microbiome, and pharma industries.
- Discovery Flywheel AI-powered screening platform that evaluates bioactive ingredients across six concurrent health benefits including stress resilience, cognitive health, gut health, metabolic health, muscle performance, and longevity using C. elegans-based phenotyping.
- Efficacy Matrix Data visualization tool that displays multi-dimensional phenotypic screening results, showing which bioactives are positive, negative, or neutral for each health benefit tested, enabling quick identification of promising ingredients or combinations.
- BioSēq™ Next-generation transcriptomics platform that maps how bioactive ingredients affect gene expression and signaling pathways tied to conserved health outcomes, providing deep mechanistic insight to complement high-throughput phenotypic screening.
- Formulation Intelligence Multi-ingredient formulation development service backed by in vivo proof. Precision-engineers synergies for health benefits across lifespan in partnership with ingredient suppliers and consumer brands in the food, nutraceutical, microbiome, and pharma sectors.
Quantifiable outcome
- Preclinical trials of bioactives completed in weeks instead of months or years
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use NemaLife
Customer profileSegments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
NemaLife technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability7 records
Feature5 records
NemaLife partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators9 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
NemaLife competitors and assessment
Company assessmentEmerging players
- PhenomeX (formerly Berkeley Lights): PhenomeX provides automated cell biology and screening platforms used in therapeutic discovery. Comparable to NemaLife on AI-driven high-throughput phenotypic screening for bioactive and biologic discovery, though with cell-based rather than whole-organism assays.
- Emulate Bio: Emulate develops organ-on-chip platforms for human-relevant in vitro testing. Comparable to NemaLife on the organism-on-chip architecture but uses mammalian cells rather than C. elegans and targets pharma drug safety rather than nutraceutical discovery.
- CN Bio: CN Bio offers organ-on-chip and microphysiological systems for drug discovery and safety assessment. Comparable to NemaLife on microfluidic in vivo platform architecture and pharmaceutical end-customers.
- MIMETAS: MIMETAS builds organ-on-chip platforms for disease modeling and compound screening, parallel to NemaLife's organism-on-chip approach but with mammalian tissues and pharma-focused use cases.
Broad incumbents
- Charles River Laboratories: Charles River is the largest preclinical CRO, offering rodent and in vivo services to pharma and biotech. NemaLife competes for preclinical screening budgets but with a C. elegans-based, faster, lower-cost alternative.
- WuXi AppTec: WuXi AppTec operates a global preclinical CRO business spanning discovery and safety assessment, comparable to NemaLife on buyer profile and service category but at vastly greater scale and breadth.
- Eurofins Scientific: Eurofins is a global testing services conglomerate with food, nutraceutical, and pharma testing capabilities. It overlaps with NemaLife on buyer segments and is a potential acquirer or competitor in ingredient testing services.
Direct peers
- Knudra Diagnostics: Knudra Diagnostics uses C. elegans for compound screening and target validation, providing a directly comparable niche C. elegans discovery service with overlapping target customers in biotech and nutraceuticals.
- InVivo Biosystems: InVivo Biosystems provides C. elegans-based custom research services, model generation, and in vivo screening for drug and biotech discovery, making it the closest direct peer to NemaLife in organism, service model, and target customer base.
- Magnitude Biosciences: Magnitude Biosciences specializes in C. elegans aging and healthspan assays using automated imaging, directly comparable to NemaLife's longevity, muscle, and healthspan screening end-points on the same model organism.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
NemaLife social profiles
Digital presenceNemaLife financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
NemaLife leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles7 records
NemaLife funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds3 records
Investors3 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
NemaLife M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about NemaLife
What does NemaLife do?
NemaLife provides preclinical research services using an AI-powered organism-on-chip platform that combines C. elegans nematodes, microfluidics automation, and visual AI to screen bioactive ingredients for health benefits including stress resilience, cognitive health, gut health, metabolic health, muscle performance, and longevity. The company partners with food, nutraceutical, microbiome, and pharmaceutical companies to accelerate ingredient discovery, validate health claims, and develop multi-ingredient formulations backed by in vivo proof.
Is NemaLife a public or private company?
NemaLife is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was NemaLife founded?
NemaLife was founded in 2018. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is NemaLife based?
NemaLife is headquartered in Lubbock, United States, in the North America region.
How does NemaLife make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Preclinical Research Services are the primary driver. The others are bioactive Asset Development.
Who are NemaLife's main competitors?
Emerging players on record are PhenomeX (formerly Berkeley Lights), Emulate Bio, CN Bio and MIMETAS. Broad incumbents are Charles River Laboratories, WuXi AppTec and Eurofins Scientific. Direct peers are Knudra Diagnostics, InVivo Biosystems and Magnitude Biosciences.
Does NemaLife have an API?
No public API is recorded for NemaLife.
What industry is NemaLife in?
NemaLife's product category is Preclinical Research Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HLAAAGAD, Organoids & Organ-on-Chip (regenerative models), with a secondary code of HLAAAIAJ, In Vitro Model Systems & Organoid Platforms (iPSC/organoids, microphysiological systems). Its NAICS code is 541714 and its SIC code is 8731.