It will be the only startup to pitch and represent Luxembourg at Web Summit, Europe’s largest tech conference, this year. A few weeks after its selection for the Fit 4 Start Acceleration program, the startup is riding a wave of success and continues to arouse curiosity. Here’s our interview with Nium’s Founder & CEO Alberto Noronha.
by: Charles-Louis Machuron
photo: Nium
featured: Alberto Noronha and Adam Selamnia
Listen to article
Tell us about your startup.
Nium is developing a personalized nutrition platform for healthcare practitioners and patients to support the treatment and prevention of diet-related diseases.
How did you come up with the idea?
During my Ph.D. studies at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine, our group’s focus was on studying metabolism and, in particular, the gut-microbiome (bacteria living in our guts). During my last year as a research associate, I was already thinking of creating a company that would use some of the methodologies we researched in a personalised nutrition application. I was not, however, entirely sure how valuable the project would be. The first step was to apply for F N R funding (JUMP program), which allowed me to do the market research, obtain valuable training and attract the interest of an industrial partner. With this, I decided to establish Nium to capitalize on this project.
“We offer R&D services to nutrition companies, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare institutions at a fee per project.”
What are your products/services?
The ultimate goal of Nium is to use nutrition as a therapeutic tool. Currently, we are focused on developing a tool capable of predicting each person’s blood sugar levels after the consumption of specific foods. We do this by analyzing the genetic composition of the bacteria living in our guts and other metabolic markers.
What is your business model?
Currently, we offer R&D services to nutrition companies, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare institutions at a fee per project.
In the future, we want to use this technology as the basis for treating and preventing Type 2 Diabetes, which affects at least 400M people around the world.
In short, we are currently operating in the B2B market with the goal of eventually moving into the B2B2C prescription-mediated market.
“We are building a team, refining our go-to-market strategy, and searching for funding opportunities that align with our goals.”
Who are your clients?
Food and nutrition companies, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare institutions.
What’s next?
First, we want to continue our R&D efforts with additional clients to further validate our technology and generate revenues. We are also collaborating with academic and healthcare institutions in developing an application for Type 2 Diabetes. We are a young company, so, at the moment, we are building a team, refining our go-to-market strategy, and searching for funding opportunities that align with our goals.
