Founded in 2020, Ummino is a biosciences startup that has cracked the code to producing lactosamine, a compound found in human breastmilk, at scale.
Its patented precision fermentation technology uses a yeast-bound recombinant enzyme to manufacture the bio-identical prebiotic. Lactosamine is a sought-after compound due to its ability to promote the colonization of bifidobacteria, a keystone of the infant gut.
However, Hummino is not designed solely for infant formula but also for adult-focused solutions. Offering improved gut barrier function and microbiome stability, it is suitable for both dietary supplements and functional food products.
Following years of research led by renowned scientists Dr. Andrea Azcarate-Peril and Dr. Jose Bruno, CEO Charles Dykes discusses the company’s path to market as it prepares to launch Hummino on a global scale.
NI+: What’s the story behind Ummino? How did it get its start?
Charles Dyke: Ummino grew out of research at NC State University around precision fermentation and the human microbiome. The core discovery was unlocking LacNAc, N-acetyllactosamine, at meaningful scale through fermentation, which hadn’t really been possible before. Ummino licensed that technology from NC State, and we’re building the company around our bioactive’s metabolic health. We’ve stayed pretty focused on one thing: getting a genuinely differentiated bioactive with clinical relevance to market.
NI+: What gap did you identify in the market? Why HMOs? And why might they be important for the adult microbiome?
CD: The gap was straightforward once we saw it. HMOs had decades of research behind them in infant nutrition, but the adult microbiome application was largely ignored, and production economics made commercial scale impossible for anyone trying to put them into food or supplement formats. We saw an ingredient with exceptional clinical potential that the industry simply couldn’t access. Precision fermentation changed that equation. It’s what allowed us to produce a bioidentical version of the lactosamine compound found in human milk oligosaccharides and gut glycoproteins that actually works for a food or beverage partner.
As for why HMOs matter for the adult microbiome, the short answer is that the same compounds that build a healthy infant microbiome from scratch are the ones that rebuild and maintain it in adults. Akkermansia muciniphila, the keystone species most associated with gut barrier integrity and metabolic health, is selectively nourished by these compounds. Most adults are depleted of both.
NI+: How do you plan on communicating the complicated science of HMOs to the general public?
CD: We lead with the problem, not the ingredient. Most people don’t need to understand what an HMO is. They need to understand that their gut barrier is the control center for their metabolic health, that it breaks down over time, and that there’s now an ingredient with clinical evidence of repairing it. That’s the conversation we’re focused on having. The precision fermentation and the lactosamine chemistry are what make us confident the solution works, but they’re not the story we’re telling the public. The story is the outcome.
NI+: How is Ummino funded, and how is it linked to NC State University?
CD: We are very fortunate to be backed by a fantastic group of investors supporting our commercialization journey. Our most recent funding round was co-led by Siddhi Capital and Bluestein Ventures, with participation from NextGen Nutrition Investment Partners and a prior round with partners that included strategic investor, Danone Ventures.
Our technology is licensed from NC State through their Office of Research commercialization. NC State is in the top 5 universities for research commercialization. It is home of the recently launched Bezos Center for Sustainable Protein, where we are a named industry partner. They have been a great partner to Ummino. They truly get it.
By virtue of our relationship with the university, we have mature technology, protected by a robust patent portfolio, which is unique for startups at this stage.
NI+: How has your business and team grown since launch? And which markets have you launched in/do you plan to launch in?
CD: We are now at the exciting inflection point, just turning the corner into commercialization. We’re focused on launching in the U.S. market first, working with B2B partners across functional nutrition, supplements and metabolic health.
We’ve remained a small, focused team by design, putting the work into getting the science and regulatory foundation right before we go to market.
NI+: Has Hummino been included in any finished products, or do you have any confirmed, upcoming product launches planned?
CD: There’s a lot we’d love to share that includes work with some of the world’s leading global functional health and nutrition companies and clinically-backed nutraceutical organizations. Within the next three-to-four months, we look forward to providing an update on our market launches.
NI+ Can Hummino be included in dietary supplement formats as well as functional foods and beverages? What types of formats might work best for this prebiotic ingredient?
CD: Hummino works across functional foods, beverages and dietary supplements, so format is really a channel strategy question for each partner rather than a constraint on our end. In terms of what works best, we think daily-use formats with an existing consumer habit are the strongest fit—yogurt, protein drinks, nutrition bars, greens powders.
The gut barrier effect builds over time, so consistency matters more than anything else, and the best way to get consistency is to put Hummino into something people are already reaching for every morning.
The low dose is a big part of why this works in food and beverage formats specifically. Hummino is effective at inclusion levels that don’t change the taste, texture or cost structure of the host product. Partners aren’t reformulating around it. It drops into an existing SKU cleanly. For supplements, the pull is coming mostly from clinical nutrition and telehealth channels where practitioners want something to recommend alongside GLP-1 protocols. A single capsule or stick pack at a clinically relevant dose is a natural fit there.
NI+: Why has Hummino been positioned at the intersection of gut health and metabolic resilience?
CD: We see gut health as the foundation of metabolic health. That’s not marketing language. That’s the biology. The gut barrier is where it all connects. When the barrier breaks down, bacterial endotoxins leak into your bloodstream and set off a chronic inflammatory response that affects insulin sensitivity and metabolic function. That’s the mechanism behind a lot of what we call ‘metabolic disease’. What we’ve done with Hummino is develop an ingredient that works at that source. It reduces the permeability of the gut wall and replenishes the specific microbes that maintain it. So, we see them as one and the same. The gut barrier is the control center for both.
NI+: What has been the company’s biggest success to date?
CD: Honestly, the biggest milestone for us has been the work that has gone into our self-affirmed GRAS determination. It’s the last step ahead of full commercialization, and we’ve put an enormous amount of rigor into getting the science and safety documentation right. We’ll be declaring self-affirmed GRAS soon, and for our partners, that’s the signal that Hummino is ready to formulate with at scale.
NI+: What challenges have you encountered while launching the company, and how did you overcome them?
CD: The core challenge of building a company like Ummino is that the timeline between scientific breakthrough and commercial revenue is long, and you have to fund the whole journey on the strength of the data and the team. Investors can’t look at a P&L. They have to believe in the science, the market and the people. We’ve been fortunate to attract backers who understood that, but it requires a level of transparency and rigor in how we tell the story that keeps us honest about where we are and where we’re going.
NI+: How do you view the future of the prebiotic market, and where does Hummino fit in?
CD: Prebiotics are having a moment, but the category is going to bifurcate. On one side you’ll have commodity fiber ingredients competing on price. On the other side you’ll have a small number of clinically validated ingredients that can speak to specific health outcomes. Hummino is built for that second category. The connection to metabolic health, the Akkermansia story, the barrier repair mechanism—those aren’t general wellness claims. They’re precise, they’re backed by trial data, and they put us in a conversation that goes well beyond traditional gut health into the fastest-growing area of nutrition science.
NI+: What advice would you give to other start-ups in the supplement industry?
CD: Pick one thing and do it exceptionally well. The supplement industry is full of companies trying to be everything to everyone, and most of them end up being nothing to nobody. We made a deliberate decision early on to focus on the B2B ingredient market and not chase direct-to-consumer. That means we’re not building a brand, we’re building an ingredient platform that makes other brands better. It’s a different business model, and it requires discipline to stay in that lane, but the focus is what makes the science and the commercial story credible.
