Theia Ventures leads pre-seed round in Lemnisca to accelerate AI-driven biomanufacturing
The funding will support Lemnisca’s laboratory expansion, AI platform development and early pilot programmes aimed at advancing sustainable bioproduction.
Bengaluru, November 28: Theia Ventures has led a pre-seed investment in Lemnisca, a Bengaluru-based Bio-AI startup developing intelligent systems to scale biomanufacturing. The round also saw participation from PointOne Capital and Satakarni Makkapati. The funding will support Lemnisca’s laboratory expansion, AI platform development and early pilot programmes aimed at advancing sustainable bioproduction.
Lemnisca is building an AI companion for fermentation that enables manufacturers to scale bioprocesses faster and with greater predictability. As global industries shift from petrochemical inputs to renewable feedstocks and biological alternatives, reliable scale-up has become a critical challenge. Lemnisca’s “science-aware” AI combines wet-lab experimentation with dry-lab modelling to understand process biology and guide real-time decision-making. The continuously learning system is designed to make biomanufacturing more efficient, consistent and scalable.
The company plans to work initially with fermentation-led manufacturers already progressing along their biomanufacturing journey while developing its own internal product pipeline. Lemnisca aims to reduce development timelines by up to 50%, improve operational efficiency by 25% and accelerate adoption of renewable and waste-carbon feedstocks. It is currently inviting pilot collaborations with CDMOs, OEMs/SIs and global ingredient brands.
“We firmly believe that biomanufacturing today needs advanced digital simulators that can predict how microbial processes will behave before reaching industrial scale,” said Priya Shah, partner at Theia Ventures. She said Lemnisca’s team brings deep practical expertise to develop a product well suited for nutraceutical and industrial biotech markets.
Pushkar Pendse, co-founder and CEO of Lemnisca, said the company’s mission is to make biomanufacturing “the default manufacturing mode globally.” He described Lemnisca as building the “digital operating system that brings biology from lab to factory” by making scale-up faster, smarter and globally accessible. Co-founder and CTO Shilpa Nargund added that the team is rethinking workflows and model architectures to ensure “fewer surprises at scale and faster, repeatable success”.
This marks the third investment from Theia Ventures’ new fund, anchored last month by British International Investment. The fund’s earlier investments include Sarla Aviation, an electric aircraft company, and Climitra Carbon, a biochar company supporting the steel industry, with three more investments planned this financial year.
About Lemnisca
Lemnisca develops AI systems to optimise and scale fermentation-led bioprocesses for industrial biotech and specialty ingredients sectors. Headquartered in Bengaluru, the company works with global partners to build more predictable and sustainable biomanufacturing workflows.
About Theia Ventures
Theia Ventures is one of India’s first specialist early-stage funds focused on deeptech, decarbonisation and energy transition technologies, backing founders building the next generation of sustainable industrial systems.
