Irish-founded weight-loss firm Viv co-founded by Pat Phelan to shut amid Ozempic rise

Backers of the company included NBA star Shaquille O'Neal and Web Summit co-founder Paddy Cosgrave

Tue, 14 Oct, 2025 - 11:29

Emer Walsh

Weight-loss company Viv, co-founded by Corkman Pat Phelan is to be wound down after two failed purchases, the company has announced.

The firm, previously known as Limbo, said it was unbale to compete with the marketing power of "multibillion dollar" companies like Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, who produce weight loss drugs Ozempic and Mounjaro.

Headquartered in New York, Viv carried out research in Cork, using AI and blood glucose to help people lose weight, having spent three years in incubation developing a technology solution and researching markets.

"We launched Viv long before the entrance to the market of drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro, and even with the entrance to the market of the world’s largest pharmaceutical providers, the weight loss capabilities of Viv continued to outperform the drug-based solutions," the company said in a statement.

"However, we did run into the huge marketing power that these multi-billion-dollar companies have, based on their sheer size.

"Over the past six months, we have had over 50 tier 1 investor meetings with venture capitalists and others, and gone through two failed purchase processes with some of the largest global companies in the CGM space, where the final question always involved the drugs and how they were much easier for people to use."

In 2022, the company raised €6m, with retired NBA star Shaquille O'Neal joining as a backer. Other seed round backers included Jamie Heaslip and co-founder of Web Summit, Paddy Cosgrave.

The company said that despite ploughing on and investing personally to keep things afloat, the final potential investor walked away last week, meaning the company could no longer continue.

"Besides the financial loss, it stings like hell that we couldn’t bring this to the masses, given that all the numbers work today perfectly. Unfortunately, the historical losses in getting to here mean that we have to close it, despite it being a very successful business for the last 12 months."

"We are obviously upset to get here," the company added. "With losses mounting and no sign of a closing of an investment/acquisition, there has to be a finish point."

It added that it "hopes one of the potential acquirers of the business will buy it out of liquidation, “and bring back the project with the correct financial footing."

Mr Phelan is most well-known for co-founding Sisu Clinic, a chain that provides minor cosmetic procedures such as Botox. Limbo was his fourth company following Sisu. He previously founded mobile roaming business Cubic Telecom and e-commerce fraud prevention firm Trustev.