The ambition is to build a new kind of infrastructure, one that measures the body not in snapshots but in a continuous, spatial map. VITAEUM, an early-stage startup based in Scottsdale, is proposing a new vital sign for chronic inflammation, built on a foundation of infrared imaging and a patent-pending system it calls Predictive Infrared Intelligence [VITAEUM, retrieved 2026]. The company is not selling a diagnostic tool, but a longitudinal measurement layer it hopes will become the standard for tracking physiologic change in clinical, performance, and wellness settings.
At the core is the Spatial Inflammation Vital Sign, or SIVS, a proposed index meant to quantify spatial deviation and change over time [VITAEUM, retrieved 2026]. The company’s initial commercial wedge is a $65,000 turnkey package for clinics, which includes a ThermaLens infrared device, heart rate variability integration, scanning protocols, and an Outcome-as-a-Service dashboard [VITAEUM, retrieved 2026]. It is a hardware-plus-software bet on making spatial physiology, a concept often discussed in research, into something that can be routinely measured and billed.
Defining a new regulatory category
Founder and CEO Mike Maunu describes the company’s mission as "defining a new regulatory category for spatial physiology" [LinkedIn, retrieved 2026]. This is more than marketing language. The company’s stated regulatory strategy is a key part of its wedge, claiming two accepted FDA Q-Submissions and an active De Novo pathway for its platform [Gust, retrieved 2026]. While these claims are self-reported and not independently verified, they point to an attempt to build a regulated, yet non-diagnostic, measurement tool from the outset.
The company explicitly positions its architecture as an answer to a specific government-funded problem. It notes that the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health has committed roughly $200 million to solve the measurement gap in longevity science [Gust, retrieved 2026]. VITAEUM’s pitch is that its system provides the standardized, longitudinal data layer that such initiatives require.
The team and early traction
VITAEUM is led by solo founder Mike Maunu, who also founded and leads Oxygen4Life, a company focused on cardiovascular health and chronic inflammation [Mission Matters, retrieved 2026]. Cindi Webb is listed as Vice President of Medical Onboarding, handling practitioner training [RocketReach, retrieved 2026]. Public data on team size is inconsistent, with sources citing between 3 and 20 employees, reflecting the fluidity of an early-stage venture [LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] [Gust, retrieved 2026] [Prospeo, retrieved 2026].
The company is currently raising a pre-seed round. No institutional funding has been independently confirmed as closed. Its commercial presence appears bifurcated: the turnkey clinic package targets professional settings, while a separate wellness app is marketed directly to consumers with explicit disclaimers that it is a "wellness-only, non-medical platform" with no diagnostic claims [vitaeumwellness.com, retrieved 2026].
| Role | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Founder, CEO, CSO | Mike Maunu | Also founder of Oxygen4Life; prior work in infrared-based health tech [LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] [Mission Matters, retrieved 2026]. |
| VP of Medical Onboarding | Cindi Webb | Leads practitioner training and implementation [RocketReach, retrieved 2026]. |
The measurement gap in chronic disease
The patient population VITAEUM ultimately seeks to serve is vast: individuals managing long-term conditions where inflammation is a central component, from cardiovascular disease to chronic pain. The company’s proposed Spatial Inflammation Vital Sign is framed as a tool for tracking the efficacy of interventions over months and years, not for diagnosing an acute issue [VITAEUM, retrieved 2026].
Today, the standard of care for monitoring many chronic inflammatory conditions relies on episodic, often invasive, biomarkers. A patient might have blood drawn to measure C-reactive protein levels during an annual physical, or undergo an MRI to assess joint inflammation during a disease flare. These provide point-in-time data but can miss subtle, continuous shifts. The clinical promise of a tool like SIVS is a lower-friction, more frequent readout that could help clinicians and patients see trends earlier, allowing for more timely adjustments to lifestyle or therapy. It is a bet on the value of continuous physiologic intelligence over sporadic diagnostic events.
Navigating a path of significant risk
For all its architectural ambition, VITAEUM faces a steep climb common to companies inventing new measurement categories. The risks are not minor, and they are layered.
- Regulatory validation. The company’s claimed FDA interactions are its most significant potential asset and its largest unverified risk. A De Novo classification is a lengthy, expensive, and uncertain process. Until a regulatory decision is publicly documented, the platform’s path to clinical use remains theoretical.
- Clinical adoption. Even with regulatory clearance, convincing clinicians to integrate a new, non-diagnostic vital sign into workflow and billing is a profound challenge. It requires demonstrating clear utility over existing methods and fitting into a reimbursement system not designed for longitudinal physiologic indices.
- Technical differentiation. The system relies on FDA-cleared infrared technology, but the proprietary edge is in the software and algorithms that create the SIVS metric [vitaeumwellness.com, retrieved 2026]. Proving this algorithm’s reliability and correlation with meaningful health outcomes will require robust, peer-reviewed clinical studies, which have not yet been cited.
- Founder focus. As a solo founder also running Oxygen4Life, Maunu must split attention between two ventures in adjacent but distinct spaces. The success of VITAEUM’s complex technical and regulatory mission may demand undivided focus.
The company’s most plausible answer to these risks is its infrastructure framing. By aiming to be a procurement-ready measurement layer for larger systems,whether in pharma trials, longevity research, or integrated health networks,it hopes to bypass the slower path of individual clinician adoption [Gust, retrieved 2026]. Partnering with a research institution involved in the ARPA-H longevity initiatives it references could provide the validation catalyst it needs.
What to watch in the next twelve months
The coming year is critical for VITAEUM. The immediate milestone is closing its pre-seed round, which would provide the capital to advance its regulatory filings and potentially initiate pilot studies. Observers should look for two concrete signals of progress.
First, any official FDA communication or public designation regarding its De Novo pathway would transform the narrative from ambition to credible contender. Second, a announced partnership with a clinical research organization or a health system to evaluate the SIVS in a specific disease pathway would provide early, real-world evidence of utility.
The bet is that chronic disease management is on the cusp of shifting from reactive diagnosis to proactive, data-rich physiology tracking. VITAEUM is building the hardware and software kit it believes will measure that future, one $65,000 clinic package at a time. Its success hinges not on selling a better diagnostic, but on convincing the market that a new category of measurement is worth building a business around.
Sources
- [VITAEUM, retrieved 2026] VITAEUM, Spatial Physiology Infrastructure | https://www.vitaeum.us/
- [VITAEUM, retrieved 2026] VITAEUM - Predictive Infrared Intelligence | https://www.vitaeum.us/foundation
- [LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] Mike Maunu Profile | https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemaunu/
- [Gust, retrieved 2026] VITAEUM Gust Profile | https://gust.com
- [vitaeumwellness.com, retrieved 2026] VITAEUM Wellness Platform | https://www.vitaeumwellness.com/wellness
- [Mission Matters, retrieved 2026] Mike Maunu Interview | https://missionmatters.com/mike-maunu-interviewed-at-the-las-vegas-investor-conference/
- [RocketReach, retrieved 2026] Cindi Webb Profile | https://rocketreach.co
- [Prospeo, retrieved 2026] VITAEUM Company Profile | https://prospeo.io/c/vitaeum-email-format
- [Science, retrieved 2026] ARPA-H Longevity Funding | https://www.science.org