Two investment firms recently placed a $6 million bet on BioFlyte, an Albuquerque startup with automated technology for detecting biological threats such as bacteria.
Cottonwood Technology Fund in Santa Fe and Anzu Partners — which lists locations in Boston, San Diego, Washington, D.C. and Tampa, Florida — participated in the round, according to the company. The money will be used for testing and evaluating BioFlyte’s technology.
The company’s technology detects airborne threats such as viruses and bacteria. That capability is then enhanced with machine learning and robotics to create an automated system.
“What BioFlyte has done is really built a capability around that core technology that’s very innovative,” said BioFlyte executive chairman Mike McLoughlin said. “There’s a lot of automation … and that’s really what kind of creates the very unique value.”
“You just mount [the product] on [a] wall and let it run.”
BioFlyte’s funding announcement comes almost two years after disclosing a $1.25 million seed round in June 2020. The company spun out of Zeteo Tech, a biological technology and medical device company in Maryland, and was incorporated two years ago.
Today, the company has a presence at the Sandia Science & Technology Park in Albuquerque. In the future, it may need more funding to ramp up production.
“I don’t know that exact timing on that but toward the end of this year we may be looking to do a Series B,” president and CEO CharlesCall said. The two main applications for BioFlyte’s product are for monitoring disease outbreaks and the use of biological weapons.
In addition to the funding, BioFlyte appointed Cottonwood managing director Dave Blivin and Anzu Partners principal Jeena Abelli to its board of directors. John Bolton, a former U.S. national security advisor, is also on the board.
In a statement provided by BioFlyte, Blivin said that Cottonwood focuses on tech that “can disrupt their markets” and that the startup “clearly fits that profile and brings a fast, accurate, and low-cost solution into a world that is increasingly dangerous.”
