Backed by top biotech investors, Canaery aims to do for scent what machine vision has done for sight
GAINESVILLE, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Canaery, the neurotech startup digitizing the sense of smell to enhance the way we perceive and monitor the world around us, announced today it has closed more than $4 million in seed funding to accelerate the development of its scent-sensing platform.
The round was led by Breakout Ventures and included participation from major investors Dolby Family Ventures, KdT Ventures and SOSV. Canaery previously was part of the IndieBio class of 2021.
“Canaery is the first company to successfully harness the miracle of nature’s olfactory system instead of trying to reinvent millions of years of evolution,” said Gabriel Lavella, CEO and founder of Canaery. “I’m grateful for the support and faith shown by our investors, and for the hard work and dedication of everyone on team Canaery. This capital will help us recruit additional top tier engineering talent and further invest in R&D as we move toward full commercialization.”
Throughout history people have trained animals to identify and respond to useful scents that would otherwise be untraceable by humans. Rats have been trained to detect landmines, pigs taught to root out truffles, and dogs used for everything from game hunting to drug interdiction.
With its proprietary neural interface based on nearly a decade of primary research, Canaery can detect every scent that enters the natural olfactory system of a working animal and wirelessly transmit the chemical signatures to the cloud for processing. All of this happens in seconds, even if the animal cannot consciously identify the scent. There is no special training required and no chance of accidental handler misdirection. Canaery can even identify scents that the animal may never have encountered before.
The resulting continuous analysis can be used for early diagnosis of diseases, preventing the spread of invasive species, or identifying other scent-based signatures such as environmental hazards and explosives.
“For years we have looked at approaches to digitize scent and have never found a solution as elegant and scalable as Canaery’s technology,” said Lindy Fishburne, Breakout Ventures managing partner and Canaery board member.
To learn more about how Canaery opens up a whole new way of perceiving and monitoring the world around us, visit canaery.com.
About Canaery
Canaery is the neurotech startup that is digitizing the sense of smell to enhance the way we perceive and monitor the world around us. By combining millions of years of olfactory evolution with advanced neural implant technology, Canaery can revolutionize industries such as medical diagnostics, physical security and global supply chain monitoring. Canaery was jointly founded by ex-DARPA engineering advisor Gabriel Lavella, former Allen Institute senior scientist Peter Ledochowitsch, and NYU Langone Health professor of neuroscience Dmitry Rinberg. The company has secured funding from top biotech investors such as Breakout Ventures, Dolby Family Ventures, IndieBio, KdT Ventures, and SOSV. To learn more about Canaery, or view our open positions, follow us on LinkedIn or visit canaery.com.
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