New financing will help scale manufacturing of BioFlyte’s novel biothreat surveillance solution to expand reach within aviation and mail screening applications

BioFlyte, a biothreat detection firm with a revolutionary new class of fieldable biological threat collection, detection, and identification solutions, today announced that it raised $5.4M in new financing led by Scout Ventures and Cottonwood Technology Fund with additional funding from New Mexico Vintage Fund. BioFlyte will use this new funding to continue scaling its manufacturing and sales operations to meet customer demand and to develop new product configurations that will serve new markets.

“This round of funding will allow us to scale our manufacturing operations and create a sales organization to drive market penetration and support our growing customer base,” said Todd Sickles, CEO, BioFlyte. “We plan to expand our market presence by providing disruptive biothreat surveillance solutions that meet the needs of business operators and emergency management personnel within enterprises that are strongly focused on protecting people and minimizing business disruption emanating from biological threats.”

BioFlyte’s flagship product is the BioTOF™ z200, a first-of-its-kind, comprehensive biothreat surveillance solution for critical infrastructure protection and mail screening. The z200 provides test results in less than five minutes and operates continuously and autonomously in critical infrastructure environments such as airports, arenas, entertainment venues, and commercial and government buildings. BioFlyte’s technology is also being used for screening within mail processing environments.

The system consists of a wall mount sensor capable of autonomous detection and identification of airborne toxins in real-time. It incorporates matrix-assisted laser desorption and ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry to acquire a mass spectrum from each collected aerosol sample. The BioTOF sensor offers high sensitivity at 100 threat particles per liter of ambient air. By incorporating robust ML/AI, the instrument continuously detects, characterizes, and stores new species in its libraries for future reference, thus giving it the ability to accurately and quickly identify an unprecedented range of toxins, viruses, and bacteria such as anthrax, ricin and fentanyl.

“We are excited to work toward our mission of making the world a better, safer place with our investment in BioFlyte,” said Brad Harrison, Managing Partner of Scout Ventures, who recently joined the company’s Board of Directors. “Its revolutionary class of fieldable biothreat sampling, detection, and identification products for safety and security align squarely with Scout’s focus on dual use frontier technology. We are thrilled by the progress Todd Sickles and the entire BioFlyte team have demonstrated with their first scale deployments at Pittsburgh International Airport and at a large New York City financial institution.”

To learn more about BioFlyte and its technology, please visit https://bioflyte.com.

About BioFlyte

BioFlyte is a bioaerosol surveillance company that is commercializing a revolutionary new class of fieldable biological contamination sampling, detection, and identification solutions. The firm’s current market focus is critical infrastructure protection and mail screening in both the government and commercial sectors. For more information about BioFlyte and its products, please visit: https://bioflyte.com.

About Scout Ventures

Scout Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm that is making the world a better, safer place by cultivating standout frontier technologies built by hard-to-access founders. Scout’s team consists of venture professionals with deep domain expertise in a variety of sectors. Scout consistently assists entrepreneurs with business development, hiring, sales strategies, and more. ​​Scout focuses on the sectors where the team’s experience helps companies grow: Frontier Technologies (AI & Data Science, Robotics, Drones, Autonomous Mobility, AR/VR, Advanced Materials, Physical and Cybersecurity, Quantum Computing, Space) and Enterprise SaaS.

About Cottonwood Technology Fund

Cottonwood Technology Fund is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology companies. The firm has a focus on deep-tech startups in the areas of cleantech, medtech, robotics, photonics, nanotechnology, advanced materials and sensor technology. Cottonwood Technology Fund has offices in the United States and the Netherlands. Visit https://www.cottonwood.vc for more information.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230810898280/en/