Scentian Bio Closes Seed Round to Unlock the Power of Digitized Smell and Taste
Finistere Ventures and Toyota Ventures Co-Lead US$2.1 Million Investment to Help AI-Powered Smell Digitization Innovator Accelerate Commercialization Efforts
Auckland, New Zealand – 28 September 2023 – Scentian Bio, a biosensor platform innovator unlocking the power of insect-level smell and taste sensitivity, today announced the close of its US$2.1 million seed round led by Finistere Ventures and Toyota Ventures, with participation from Icehouse Ventures and Our Crowd, among others. With a total of US$4.4 million in funding to date including grant funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Scentian Bio will use the additional seed funding to grow its team, further the development of its technology platform and accelerate commercialization plans for its industry-specific solution offerings – starting with the food industry and then moving into the medical sector and beyond.
“We are at the cusp of a new era of nature-driven technology solutions, especially in the food and health industries. The brilliant minds leading the development of Scentian Bio’s biosensing platform are taking a truly novel approach to smell and taste digitization - overcoming the obstacles faced in previous attempts by early innovators,” said Dean Tilyard, venture partner, Finistere Ventures.
“Insects, shaped by 400 million years of evolution, have perfected the art of detecting organic compounds through scent receptors that contain sensitivity levels a million times better than humans and a thousand times better than dogs. Scentian Bio's team of world-class scientists and biosensor technologists is bringing how insects smell to market. We’re excited to support them as they apply this amazing technology to food, flavor, fragrances, and wellness" added Jim Adler, Founder and General Partner at Toyota Ventures.
Scentian Bio has developed a patented biosensor technology based on insect olfactory receptors (iOR) for the ultimate VOC detection tool. Using artificial intelligence, Scentian Bio can process and interpret signals from its biosensors to replicate the neuronal network that an insect uses to interpret smell. Offering unparalleled sensitivity (1000x more sensitive than a dog’s nose) with dozens of unique receptors that effectively recognize millions of VOCs, Scentian Bio delivers critical information quickly, accessibly, and at significantly lower cost than previous digital sensors. The company aims to build out the platform to support a broad range of use cases, including food and flavor quality control and food-pathogen detection, non-invasive rapid disease diagnostics, sustainable farming and environmental and wellness monitoring.
“Biosensors are finally breaking out of the lab and changing our everyday lives. Our platform harnesses 400 million years of evolution into an easy-to-use handheld sensor. Given the huge wealth of chemical information that smell is designed to process, we see the potential for smell biosensors to deliver tremendous value and are excited to have the investors onboard to help make this happen,” noted Jonathan Good, CEO, Scentian Bio.
Based on early success in pre-market testing with a global food company, Scentian Bio will focus first on launching a quality control solution for the food industry. Its first digital biosensor solution, expected to launch commercially at the end of 2024, will provide fast quality control of the smell and taste attributes for key food ingredients. Initially focusing on essential oils, Scentian Bio plans to expand its quality control solutions to include other key ingredients over time.
“We see a large opportunity to serve the food industry as companies seek out ways to increase efficiency and improve their quality control, formulation and food safety efforts. Our first solution will address a primary pain point for the food industry – shifting from slow, subjective, expensive quality control methods to data-driven, objective, fast and cost-efficient digital tools,” added Good. “Our second push will be in the medical arena, as we continue to further the development of our non-invasive, real-time, early detection diagnostic device for human diseases using volatile biomarkers.”
Timed with the investment, Scentian Bio also announced the addition of Finistere Ventures’ Dean Tilyard to its Board of Directors and the successful completion of major platform milestones. To date, Scentian Bio has been able to synthesize a library of 52 insect olfactory receptors, reach sensitivity at the femtomolar level (equivalent to one water droplet in 20,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools), demonstrate digital response on six types of transducers, and prove its ability to use a combinatorial response to distinguish two bacteria critical to food quality. Scentian Bio has developed a scalable production process for scent and taste receptors, an advanced prediction algorithm for iOR response to match the best receptors to solve specific problems, and a proprietary data framework for signal analysis.
Watch this video to learn more about a new way to sense the world and how Scentian Bio plans to lead a scent data revolution.
About Scentian Bio
Scentian Bio, the first smell and taste digitization innovator to overcome early e-nose limitations, combines insect olfactory receptors with nanotechnology and artificial intelligence to deliver ultra-sensitive taste and smell solutions for the food and health industries. Spun out from New Zealand’s Plant & Food Research, its biosensor platform leverages patented technology based on decades of scientific research to make the real-time, portable interpretation of complex chemical signatures possible. Based in New Zealand and backed by top foodtech and biotech investors, Scentian Bio is led by a team of global leaders in insect olfaction and biosensor technology. For more information visit www.scentianbio.com
About Finistere Ventures
Finistere Ventures is a leading venture capital investor with a focus on the Food Value Chain. Finistere has offices in Palo Alto with additional presence in Israel and New Zealand. Its team has developed and invested in some of the most innovative foodtech and agtech companies of the last 20 years—building and backing companies worth more than $5 billion. Visit Finistere.com.
About Toyota Ventures
Toyota Ventures is a San Francisco Bay Area-based venture capital firm that invests in early-stage startups from around the world. Founded in July 2017, its mission is to discover what’s next for Toyota by helping startups bring disruptive technologies and business models to market quickly. With more than $500 million in assets under management, the firm’s funds include the Toyota Ventures Frontier Fund focused on artificial intelligence, cloud computing, autonomy, mobility, robotics, smart cities, digital health, financial technologies, and materials; and the Toyota Ventures Climate Fund focused on innovative solutions for accelerating carbon neutrality. For more information about Toyota Ventures and its portfolio companies, please visit www.toyota.ventures.
About Icehouse Ventures
Icehouse Ventures is a venture capital firm on a mission to fuel Aotearoa’s bravest founders. Over the last 20 years, they have scaled to become NZ’s most active early-stage investor. With $345m of funds under management and a portfolio of more than 300 companies. The firm invests from concept stage through to Series D and features in its portfolio; Dawn Aerospace, Halter, Crimson Education, Hnry, Sharesies, First AML and more. Visit Icehouseventures.co.nz
