Allergy Amulet, a company helping people with food allergies, raised $3.3 million in seed funding for the development of a consumer food allergen sensor.
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The small sensor, that doubles as a medical alert system, can be carried on a keychain or in a pocket and is capable of testing food for common allergenic ingredients in seconds, Abigail Barnes, co-founder and CEO of Allergy Amulet told Crunchbase News.
“Over the past few decades, there has been a surge in the number of children diagnosed with food allergies and more individuals are being diagnosed with food allergies as adults,” Barnes said. “Food allergies are life-threatening, so the action of eating food alone is like playing Russian roulette. A simple food test can significantly improve life for people.”
TitletownTech, a joint venture between Microsoft and the Green Bay Packers, led the round that also included participation from Great North Labs, Colle Capital, Great Oaks VC, DeepWork Capital, Dipalo Ventures and Bulldog Innovation Group. This gives a total funding amount for Allergy Amulet of $5 million, including a pre-seed round of $1.6 million, Barnes said.
The new cash infusion will be used to manufacture beta units, help with product pre-orders, expand product offerings to cover more allergens, grow its team of eight, add additional restaurant and company partners to its roster, and educate consumers on the benefits of additional food allergen management tools, she said.
“Our focus is on the 32 million Americans and between 220 million and 520 million people globally, including 6 million children, who have food allergies,” Barnes added. “We have also seen interest from restaurants and businesses on how to be better hosts to their patrons with these allergies.”
A person’s microbiome is one of the theories behind food allergens that is still being understood by researchers, she said. Right now, the treatment is avoidance, but every 3 minutes a food allergy sends someone to the emergency room, which becomes an emotional and financial burden, she said.
Allergy Amulet aims to optimize technology and education to become a food allergy management package with all of the tools in one place, Barnes said. The company will begin taking pre-orders in October for a launch in the fall of 2021.
“We want to innovate in the food allergy space to make it safer for the millions of people managing their allergies,” she said.
Photo of Allergy Amulet CEO Abigail Barnes courtesy of the company.
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