HyperSpectral, an Alexandria startup combining spectroscopy and software to rapidly run health and safety tests, has emerged from stealth with $8.5 million in fresh funding.
Early stage venture capital firms RRE Ventures of New York and Kibo Ventures in Madrid, Spain, co-led the Series A round, bringing HyperSpectral's total funding to $12.1 million. The company was founded in 2022 by CEO Matt Theurer, Chief Operating Officer Lauren Stack and Chief Information Officer Vince Lubsey.
In an interview, Stack explained how HyperSpectral's tech can rapidly identify pathogens and other targets by using spectroscopy — a field of science that measures the impacts that various solids, liquids or gases have on light — and proprietary software powered by datasets obtained through lab partnerships and testing.
HyperSpectral so far has been able to use its tech to determine if there is listeria in food processing environments in a matter of minutes and with equivalent accuracy compared to the multiday process a traditional PCR test would take. It's also in the midst of running food safety pilot programs with Case Western Reserve University and the Safe Food Alliance.
"Spectral data is probably the world's most reliable data source; you can't fudge it," Stack said. "We're looking to build on that."
The technology, which Stack calls "hardware agnostic," also has applications beyond health and medical uses. For example, the startup has a revenue-producing contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to pursue defense applications for the technology.
To facilitate its envisioned expansion, HyperSpectral will need to double its 15-person workforce over the next year, Stack said, adding that she is confident it can find that talent right here in Greater Washington.
"Obviously we'll be adding probably a lot of [machine learning, artificial intelligence] type of people because that's the backbone of what we're doing," Stack said. "We've got a lot of platform work and are hoping to do a lot of that in the D.C. area. Both Matt Theurer and I are headquartered here… and really believe in the D.C. community, so we're very happy to be building our business here."
Prior to launching HyperSpectral, Stack was a co-founder and COO at Potomac Management Group Inc., a federal contracting firm that was later acquired and then merged with another business. Theurer is also a co-founder of Virtustream Inc., a Bethesda IT services firm that EMC Corp. bought for $1.2 billion in 2015. Dell Inc. acquired EMC a year later.
It's too soon to say when HyperSpectral might need to raise money again, though Stack said executives could "start having discussions" about a Series B by the end of the year. For now, it's most important for HyperSpectral to establish more revenue traction and footholds in other sectors beyond health and food safety, said Stack, who declined to disclose revenue figures.
"We're going to work to create as much value as we can," she said.
