HEALTHCARE / SME

By FedEx | March 21, 2025

Healthcare entrepreneurs are building gut microbiome databases – but why? Jeremy Lim, co-founder and CEO of healthtech start-up AMILI, is on a mission to improve public health by making data and diagnostics more accessible.

• Founded by academic doctors and scientists, AMILI is a Singapore-based biotech start-up focused on improving human health across Asia.
• AMILI is Southeast Asia’s first and only gut microbiome transplant bank – and has plans to build the world’s largest multi-ethnic Asia microbiome database.
• CEO Jeremy Lim is bringing together diagnostics, data and research to offer patients deeper insight into how their body works and how to optimize their health.

What can gut health really tell us about our bodies? For decades, medical experts have advocated more precise, frequent gut microbiome health testing. Analysis can help diagnose all kinds of medical conditions and health issues, with good gut bacteria a major player in the body’s immune system response.

Trained in surgery and public health, with adjunct faculty roles in the National University of Singapore and Monash University Malaysia, former healthcare consultant Jeremy Lim knows this better than most.

After years of experience advising organizations as diverse as governments in Asia and the Middle East, international NGO and development banks, and numerous healthcare businesses, Jeremy was on the verge of retirement – until he spotted an opportunity too good to miss. 

Convinced that microbiome health was one of the most important untapped areas of healthcare, he co-founded AMILI, a Singapore-based healthtech start-up, in 2019.

Pioneering microbiome science in Asia

Hailed as Southeast Asia’s first and only precision gut microbiome company, AMILI aims to supercharge microbiome research to help more people improve their gut health, and hence, overall health. As Jeremy shared with us, “Good health starts with gut health”.

From a business perspective, Jeremy’s previous experiences in the clinical and commercial aspects of healthcare have proved invaluable in an emerging healthcare start-up, where building stakeholder trust and legitimacy is key. 

We spoke to CEO Jeremy Lim about the importance of building multi-ethnic Asia healthcare data – and why it’s never too late to become an entrepreneur.

What inspired you to venture into microbiome science and launch AMILI? 

Jeremy Lim: AMILI (a portmanteau of Asia, Microbiome and Library) was born out of a mission and a need. 

In 2018, I was introduced to microbiome science when I met my now co-founders, Drs David Ong and Jonathan Lee. They had performed the first gut microbiome transplants in the region back in 2014 and wanted to expand access to microbiome diagnostics and interventions. 

It was clear even then that the microbiome would transform how we fundamentally think about healthcare and health. Primarily driven by diet, lifestyle and environmental factors, it was also clear that the microbiome is significantly different region to region. Interestingly, diet and environment seem to be at least 10 times more important than human genomics.

With the reality that so much of the great science was being conducted in North America and Europe, and in much more homogenous populations in East Asia, we felt we had to do something. AMILI was the result!

Our ambition is to build the world’s largest multi-ethnic Asia database and use the data to build out products and services to optimize microbiome or gut health.

What challenges did you face in AMILI’s early days, and how did you overcome them?

The biggest challenge with doing anything new or novel is getting buy-in from fellow health professionals and the broader public. 

We intentionally focused on partnerships with leading hospitals and academic medical centers, establishing the databases to facilitate microbiome research and fostering a wider community. 

In the early years, revenue was channeled into driving discovery and foundational assets. Now we have the pieces in place, 2025 onwards is all about commercial acceleration and scaling up.

How much has AMILI grown since it first launched? 

We’re now a team of 30 across five countries. But that’s less important than the quality of our partners: Mount Elizabeth Hospital (Orchard) in Singapore for microbiome transplants, Haleon for clinical research and discovery, and Dole for optimizing the health benefits of food.

We’ve also announced two major studies on personalizing nutrition in Asia, and we’re developing a combined skin-gut microbiome diagnostic test for inflammatory skin diseases with Sequential in the UK.

You were considering retirement before deciding to launch AMILI. What’s your philosophy towards work, success and retirement? Has it changed before and after building AMILI?

It’s a privilege that at my stage in life, I have the luxury to focus my time and energy on what really matters to me. I’m convinced that medicine and health will be massively enriched by incorporating microbiome optimization. 

Benefits range from living to our fullest functional potential, making cancer immunotherapy more effective, improving brain health in autism spectrum disorder and other conditions, right through to healthy longevity. AMILI has been very fortunate to be involved in many of these areas. I’m happy to be able to play a small part in catalyzing this.

What is one belief you hold that other business leaders might disagree with?

Grow the pie. Everyone can win.

Perhaps this is specific to health, but the needs are so great and the supply constraints so real that the competition is not with each other. As healthcare businesses, we all just need to do our jobs well to help our patients and customers, and the world will be better. 

Governments, insurers and employers can improve this by enabling sustainable business models that incentivize further sector growth and improve individual and population health.

What’s next for AMILI?

We are doubling down on growing our partner and customer base, not just in Singapore but across the region. We’re going all in – 110% – on execution, delivering to our customers and clients.

It’s a period of great opportunity for us. We’re laser-focused on 2025 growth in select geographies, building a scalable model. In 2026, we will return to the capital markets for growth capital so we can expand even further regionally and globally.

The microbiome is coming of age! At AMILI, we are ready to harness the growing interest and positive energy.

***

Our Confessions of a CEO column quizzes Asia Pacific leaders on business insights that aspiring entrepreneurs can learn from. To discover more entrepreneurship stories like Jeremy’s, subscribe to our monthly newsletter, and stay tuned for the next edition.