BioFlyte, an Albuquerque biothreat surveillance startup, announced today it raised $5.4 million in new financing to scale its manufacturing and sales operations.
Led by Scout Ventures and Cottonwood Technology Fund, with additional funding from New Mexico Vintage Fund, BioFlyte aims to expand its novel biothreat surveillance solution in multiple sectors.
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.
“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.”