Regensburg, April 14 – Despite premium pricing, many nutraceutical supplements deliver only a fraction of their promised benefits because large parts of the active ingredients are poorly absorbed. In some cases, less than 1% of the ingredient can be effectively used by the human body. EVANIUM, a life-science startup from Regensburg, Germany, is addressing this fundamental inefficiency with a new generation of bioavailability-enhanced ingredients.
EVANIUM announced the successful closing of a €2.2 million seed funding round, backed by FoodLabs and Feast Ventures, with participation from existing angel investors. The fresh capital will be used to scale the company’s proprietary OPTISOLV Technology, expand the team, advance clinical studies, and accelerate commercial partnerships in nutraceuticals, nutricosmetics, and functional foods.
OPTISOLV: Turning Inefficient Supplements into High‑Performance Products
Built around a dual‑coating system, OPTISOLV combines an inner cyclodextrin-based core with an outer phospholipid shell, stabilising natural actives in a crystal‑free, highly dispersible state. This structure prevents re‑agglomeration, improves permeability, and enables dramatically higher solubility and absorption, using only natural materials. For challenging actives such as Curcumin, the improvement is more than 1,000x in solubility and more than 170x better release during digestion, compared to the native form, outperforming conventional phospholipid-based approaches in a side-by-side comparison. “The future of nutraceuticals lies not in higher dosages, but in smarter formulations. OPTISOLV turns promising bioactives into high‑performance ingredients, enabling truly effective products. With this funding, we are able to accelerate the scale of our impact,” said Felix Rolka, Co‑Founder and CEO of EVANIUM.
From Technology Validation to Market Proof
EVANIUM has already demonstrated that OPTISOLV works beyond the lab. In 2025, the company successfully launched OPTISOLV Curcumin together with Hevert-Arzneimittel, one of the leading German manufacturers of herbal medicines. The collaboration marked EVANIUM’s first commercial market entry in Germany and validated OPTISOLV as an industry‑ready technology for established B2B partners.
Building on this momentum, EVANIUM has filed its fourth patent, securing OPTISOLV as the foundation of a scalable ingredient platform. The company’s growing portfolio now includes four functional ingredients: OPTISOLV Curcumin, Berberine, Boswellia, and Passiflora. Preparations for clinical studies are underway to further strengthen the scientific evidence behind EVANIUM’s formulations. “EVANIUM addresses one of the most expensive inefficiencies in the nutraceutical industry,” said Adrian Friederich, Head of Investments at FoodLabs. “Improving bioavailability doesn’t just benefit brands, it directly improves consumer outcomes,”. Benedikt Stöckert, Partner at Feast Ventures, added: “With a proven technology, early commercial traction, and a dedicated platform strategy, EVANIUM is well-positioned to become a key technology partner for next‑generation ingredients in applications across food, supplements, nutricosmetics, and pharmaceuticals,”.
Scaling a Platform for the Future of Supplements
Founded by a multidisciplinary team with backgrounds in pharmaceutical science and entrepreneurship, EVANIUM has rapidly evolved from an R&D‑driven startup into a technology partner for established companies. Following the seed round, the company has grown to more than 12 team members. EVANIUM will exhibit for the first time with its own stand at Vitafoods Europe and Food Ingredients in the Startup Areas. In 2026 alone, EVANIUM has produced and delivered more than two tons of material, proving the industrial readiness. This marks a major milestone in EVANIUM’s transition from innovation to industrial impact. With OPTISOLV Berberine, developed for supporting metabolic health, EVANIUM is a finalist for this year's Vitafoods Europe Startup Challenge in the category “Most Innovative Nutraceutical Ingredient”.