by Lynda Kiernan

French digital olfactory startup Aryballe Technologies announced it has raised a €6.2 million (US$7 million) Series B to advance its electronic nose technology.  

This round, which brings the company’s total funding to €9.3 (US$10.4 million), was led by two new strategic investors –  International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) and Hyundai Motor Company – and includes existing investors including Catherine Dunand of Cemag Invest, and Vincent Deltrieu of Innovacom.

Launched in 2014 in Grenoble, France, Aryballe brings together biochemistry, advanced optics, and machine learning to digitally mimic the human sense of smell. The company debuted its first product, the NeOse Pro, in early 2018. Able to detect hundreds of odors, this portable ‘digital nose’ captures odor signatures for display and analysis by software solutions that help the user make more informed decisions, improve R&D, quality control, manufacturing, and end user experiences.

“Our passion for innovation is uniquely aligned with Aryballe’s technology in digital scent, a key pillar of our strategy,” says Nicolas Mirzayantz, Divisional CEO, Scent, for IFF.

“We see digital olfaction as essential to quality control, developing new solutions for our customers, and to entering new industries. We are excited at the prospect of working together to push the boundaries of this technology.”

Nose to Nose

Although certainly not mainstream, Aryballe is not the first digital olfactory startup to raise funds this year. In March, Aroma Bit, a Tokyo-based deep technology startup, raised JPY250 million (US$2.23 million) through a Series A led by existing investor, the Sony Innovation Fund, the venture capital arm of Sony Corporation.

Led by CEO Shunichiro Kuroki, who founded the company in 2014, Aroma Bit develops low-cost, compact digital sensors that identify and create visual maps, or “fingerprints” for smells.

“Our vision is to create a new language that allows us to communicate this abstract world of aroma thru aroma visualization technology,” said Kuroki on his company’s website.

Understanding that each individual interprets smells differently, Aroma Bit’s sensor technology can mimic the human olfactory system in an objective way, creating a universal digital language to convert the abstract into concrete, usable information.

For Aryballe, this fresh capital will be used to further modernize and advance its technology, and to market its solutions for applications in targeted industries such as food & beverage, flavors & fragrances, automotive, and appliances.

Within the food supply chain, this technology could help fight fraud by ensuring that raw commodities are authentic, or by determining if vanilla is real or artificial, for example, explains The Spoon. It also can ensure quality and consistency by guaranteeing that each batch of roasted coffee smells the same, and eventually, if the technology is embedded in smaller devices fitting in food packaging, could determine if food is beginning to rot. 

“This is a significant new step for Aryballe and we are proud to strengthen our support,” said Aryballe board member Vincent Deltrieu, venture capital partner at Innovacom and investor since 2016. “The company provides a very promising solution solving major issues in the digital olfaction business. This new funding round illustrates Innovacom’s investment policy fostering industrial connections when meaningful for technology startups.”

Smell is not our only sense being targeted by technology. Earlier this month, BM announced the development of Hypertaste, a ‘digital tongue’ that can identify and fingerprint liquids in less than a minute. This technology, although applicable across multiple industries, could prove to be key in detecting food and beverage fraud and adulteration, greatly improving the safety of the supply chain.

 

– Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to GAI News. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration, please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.