A spectral device using Generative AI could detect bad microbes in food factories in real time

The factories which process our food and beverages (newsflash: no, it doesn’t come straight from a farm) have to be kept very clean, or we’d all get very ill, to be blunt. That usually entails deploying all sorts of petri-dish-based microbiological monitoring, hardware and waiting for tests to return from labs. Until now. Because, as with everything else these days, Generative AI is about to affect how we keep these factories clean. I mean, who wants Listeria on their deli meats, amiright?

Spore.Bio is a French startup. Its pathogen detection device shines an optical light on surfaces and detects the bad bugs, by compariing it with its training data gleaned from the microbes normally found on food processing factory floors.

The theory is that it’s a lot faster do to that than send tests off to a lab. The startup claims its solution works almost in real time, compared to the 5-20 days factoring testing normally takes.

Off the back of this solution it’s now raised €8 million in pre-seed funding led by London’s LocalGlobe VC. Also participating was EmergingTech Ventures, No Label Ventures, Famille C (Clarins Family Office), Better Angle, LocalGlobe, Plug&Play Ventures, Entrepreneur First, Kima Ventures, Raise Sherpas, Fair Equity Sharpstone Capital and Angels.

Spore.Bio was founded in 2023 by CEO Amine Raji (formerly of Nestlé), CTO Maxime Mistretta, and COO Mohamed Tazi (formely Gymlib founder). However it won’t all be plain-sailing for Spore.

Competitors include US-based PathogenDX which has raised
$11.6M for its various other solutions.