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§ Private Profile · San Francisco, CA, USA
Nima is a technology company.
Nima provides portable sensor technology for rapid, accurate gluten detection in food. Its core offering includes a compact device, single-use test capsules, and a companion application, enabling users to swiftly confirm food safety. This system achieves 10 ppm detection with 99% accuracy, empowering individuals to scientifically verify gluten content in diverse environments.
Nima was founded in 2013 by MIT students Shireen Yates and Scott Sundvor. Their personal experiences with food allergies and gluten intolerance highlighted the daily uncertainty of food safety. This prompted them to develop a reliable, portable solution for immediate gluten detection, offering peace of mind to those with dietary restrictions.
The company serves individuals managing celiac disease and gluten sensitivities, including parents and caregivers, seeking assurance in dietary choices. Nima’s product supports informed decision-making in homes, travel, and dining out. Its vision focuses on enhancing safety, confidence, and trust within the gluten-free community via accessible, science-backed technology.
Nima has raised $13.0M across 2 funding rounds.
Nima has raised $13.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
Nima has raised $13.0M across 2 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $9.0M Series A in May 2016.
Nima is a technology company that developed a portable food sensor enabling people with food allergies and sensitivities to test food for specific proteins like gluten and peanuts.[1] It serves individuals requiring on-the-spot allergen detection during meals outside the home, solving the problem of unreliable labeling and cross-contamination in restaurants and packaged foods—such as a Columbia Celiac Disease Center study finding gluten in one out of three "gluten-free" restaurant dishes based on Nima user data.[1] Launched from MIT in 2013, Nima released its gluten sensor in 2017 and peanut sensor in 2018, paired with a Bluetooth app for sharing results and crowd-sourced allergen info; the company was acquired by Medline Industries in 2020, spun out, and rebranded as Nima Partners, with products still available today.[1]
Nima was founded in 2013 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) by founders who met there and were personally driven by their own severe food sensitivities and family members' extreme allergies.[1] Motivated to stay healthy and social while eating out, they created the first consumer food tester category, starting with a gluten sensor generally available in February 2017, followed by a peanut sensor in September 2018.[1] Early traction included a companion app for iOS and Android to connect users, share tests, and map allergens; pivotal moments were the 2020 acquisition by Medline Industries—temporarily disrupting capsule supply amid COVID-19—and subsequent spin-out as Nima Partners.[1]
Nima rides the wave of personalized health tech and rising food allergy prevalence, where 32 million Americans avoid allergens amid unreliable supply chains and dining risks.[1] Timing aligns with post-2010 sensor miniaturization advances from MIT ecosystems, enabling consumer-grade biotech; market forces like regulatory scrutiny on "gluten-free" claims (e.g., FDA standards) and demand for data-driven wellness favor its growth.[1] It influences the ecosystem by pioneering crowd-sourced food safety data, akin to Waze for traffic, pressuring restaurants/brands for accuracy and fostering allergy-aware innovation.
Nima's post-acquisition stability as Nima Partners positions it for sensor portfolio expansion into dairy/tree nuts and beyond, leveraging app data for AI-driven predictions.[1] Trends like wearable health integration and precision nutrition will amplify its role, potentially partnering with meal kits or smart kitchens. Its influence may evolve from niche tester to ecosystem enabler, empowering allergy sufferers with data sovereignty in a $50B+ functional food market—reinforcing its origin as a personal health revolution from MIT ingenuity.[1]
Nima has raised $13.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
Nima's investors include Foundry Group, 8VC, 9Yards Capital, Kevin Hartz, Accel, Acrew Capital, Adverb Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, Audrey Capital, Benchstrength, Blitzscaling Ventures, Bond.