Genesia Ventures Makes Follow-on Investment in THE PHAGE’s Series A Round
Genesia Ventures has made a follow-on investment in the Series A round of THE PHAGE, which develops AI-powered personalized preventive healthcare services and a glucose foundation model (CGFM).
Investment Background
Blood glucose is a key indicator of the risk of developing lifestyle-related diseases. However, glucose responses vary widely from person to person, and until now it has been difficult to interpret them on a personalized, scientific basis. Because lifestyle-related diseases are hard to address once they become chronic, there is strong demand for technology that can track and manage each person’s metabolic state before onset.
THE PHAGE is tackling this challenge head-on. At the core of its work is CGFM, an AI model trained on large-scale time-series data from continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) to capture each individual’s glucose patterns. In the roughly four years since Genesia’s pre-seed investment, the company has steadily improved the model’s accuracy and brought its products into real-world use, and the business is now growing rapidly.
Business Overview
THE PHAGE aims to deliver personalized preventive healthcare using AI. Its core technology, CGFM, is a foundation model pre-trained on large-scale continuous glucose data. It captures each person’s metabolic state and can handle multiple tasks, including predicting future glucose fluctuations, classifying metabolic types, and assessing health risks. The company also aims to combine the model with lifestyle data, such as meals, for more personalized analysis. CGFM is being developed and validated in collaboration with research institutions including Chiba University, through the company’s CSO, Professor Eiryo Kawakami.
In line with the Japanese government’s goal of “proactive preventive healthcare,” the company already operates its AI commercially, at scale and in everyday use. Alongside this round, THE PHAGE has entered into a strategic business alliance with Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., Ltd. to promote health programs in next-generation healthcare, further expanding its business.
Use of Funds and Future Outlook
THE PHAGE will use the funds raised to:
- Rapidly scale its existing personalized prevention business
- Advance research and development of preventive healthcare AI to curb the onset of lifestyle-related diseases
- Hire diverse talent regardless of nationality, age, or career stage, and strengthen its organization
- Over the longer term, develop a platform for mibyo (the “pre-disease” state between health and illness) that helps more people identify disease risks early
About the Investment
Koki Mizutani, Investment Manager, Genesia Ventures
Everyone’s glucose response is different, yet until now it has been hard to understand these responses on a personalized, scientific basis, and lifestyle-related diseases are difficult to address once they become chronic. We see in THE PHAGE’s technology the potential to fundamentally change that. Having worked alongside the team since their pre-seed round four years ago, we have watched the glucose foundation model’s accuracy steadily improve, the product take hold in real-world use, and the business enter a period of dramatic growth. We are delighted to participate in this Series A round, marking our third investment in the company.
Company Information
Company Name: THE PHAGE Inc.
Website: https://thephage.life/
Founded: July 15, 2021
Address: VEIL SHIBUYA 2F, 2-16-8 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Representative: Shohei Tokunaga, CEO
