How twin sister triathletes doubled down on sports success to raise health-startup millions from investors

CNBC

2 days ago

During their last year of completing work for doctoral degrees in physiology, twin sisters Michal Mor and Merav Mor started to compete in Ironman triathlon races. The demand for peak fitness led them to the realize the importance of understanding personal metabolism, and the lack of data being collected on it through devices accessible to consumers.
That's how their health tech startup Lumen's first prototype was created. Initially, the sisters had no plans to turn it into a business. In the earliest days of the hand-held device iteration — which measures metabolic data points in a single breath, in under a minute — the test subjects were close to home.
"We used to take it to dinner on Fridays with our family, and we would ask our sister, 'Can you come here for a sec? Just sit and breathe into the device,'" Merav recalled in a recent interview with CNBC's Julia Boorstin for the CNBC Changemakers Spotlight series.
Both were named to the 2025 CNBC Changemakers list.
The Mor sisters realized they had something much bigger in their hands when they made their father, who has diabetes, try the device, and the results were eye-opening.
A big initial success on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo gave the sisters the push they needed to see an even bigger business opportunity, which to date has raised $77 million from investors.
It wasn't a lifelong plan for the twins to become triathletes, physiology PhDs, or startup founders, but Lumen has now collected over 65 million breaths to date from more than 350,000 individuals. The Morav sisters have learned a lot about persistence, conflict and leadership along the way.
The Mor sisters say being athletes helped them learn persistence in their journey as entrepreneurs, even when things get challenging.
"You have to be able to wake up at 4 a.m., even when it's tough, even when it's cold, you have to do it," said Michal. "You're able to enjoy the pain, it's a part of the journey."
From relentlessly working on developing a sensor for three years to getting credibility in the scientific world, they say resilience is as important as any factor in reaching success. Before Lumen, there were one million data measurements on metabolic activity. Now there are 75 million, Michal said.
Being persistent was a trait the sisters hadn't mastered early in their attempts at success. In fact, when they were rejected from their original dream of attending medical school, they didn't know their next step. Michal says she felt like giving up, but their mother helped to push them to figure out a new path.
"She opened our eyes to different things that we also might be passionate about," added Merav. "And she was right. We completely fell in love with research."
Eventually, they were accepted to a medical school, "but we said 'nah, nah, it's too little, too late,'" recalled Merav.
As close as the twins are, their relationship is not immune to conflict. When they do disagree, they say the key is to make sure the argument remains healthy and the discussion is solution-oriented.
Among the habits their mother instilled was the commandment that you never go to sleep with unresolved issues.
"It's like a snowball, and if you don't resolve that, it's very hard to fill the gap," said Michal.
She also forced the sisters to resist digging in their heels. Even at a young age, when Michal and Merav would fight, their mother pushed them to understand the other's perspective.
"'Why do you think she feels like that? Why do you think she reacted like that?'" Michal recalls her mother asking. "She still does that sometimes."
Michal says that while both sisters are pursuing the same goal, even described them as being "egoless" in the relationship, they are different in terms of strengths and weaknesses.
They described their relationship as being a "Yin and Yang."
Both sisters have a background in cardiology from their PhD work, but in the initial stages of building Lumen, Merav focused on the molecular mechanism behind irregular heart rhythm, and Michal focused more on the clinical aspect of irregular heart rhythm. Now, Merav leads their research, and Michal leads product development.
Building trust with each other is the foundation on which they build, creating what they say is a comfortable space for challenges including the inevitable disagreements, but still know that they will remain tied to the pursuit of the same goals. And that "psychological safety" as they called it, is an aspect of working relationship they have strived to bring to their company culture and employees.
The Mor sisters believe that a company can only be successful if its employees work as a unit towards a common goal. Placing a high priority on work-life balance is critical, they say, especially for a company where more than 50% of Lumen leadership positions are occupied by women, and more than 50% of the total workforce is women.
"The fact that we're moms also enables other women in the company," said Merav.
As part of their approach to achieve a proper work-life balance, essential meetings don't take place after certain work hours, allowing employees to go back home and have more time to unwind with their families.
"Having time with your family, it's something that fills you," said Michal.
Their success as sisters, the lessons they learned from their mother, and those initial Lumen device tests at the family dinner table, inform their approach to leadership and Lumen's mission today.
"Friends might come and go, things can come and go, but eventually the core family, that is something you should really, really embrace," said Merav. "You're having a bad day? Take a deep breath, you can fix it."