Spectricity raises €14m Series B funding for hyperspectral sensing

Spectricity, a provider of hyperspectral sensing solutions for mobile and consumer devices, has raised €14m in Series B funding to help accelerate the development and mass production of hyperspectral sensors and imagers.

Targeting high-volume, low-cost applications from wearables to smartphones and IoT devices, hyperspectral sensing allows devices to “see” beyond what the naked eye can see.

The sensor can tell a users their heartbeat, the amount of oxygen in their blood or the hydration of their skin, while hyperspectral imagers can be used to perfectly match skintone to cosmetics or to determine whether food is fresh.

Spectricity’s patented, spectral sensing technology is the only one in the world that can make professional grade sensor and imager solutions small and low power enough to fit a smartphone or a wearable device. This technology has been developed to bring a wide array of health, cosmetic, food and augmented reality applications to consumers.

Global investors including Atlantic Bridge, Capricorn Fusion China Fund, Shanghai Semiconductor Equipment and Material Fund (SSMEF) invested in this Series B round alongside Belgium Series A investors imec.xpand and XTRION. This round brings Spectricity to €20 million in total funding to date.

“This is a major milestone for Spectricity and the deployment of our chip size hyperspectral sensor and imager solutions for mass market mobile devices and applications”, said Vincent Mouret, Spectricity CEO “This new round of financing will enable us to significantly accelerate our high-volume manufacturing, hire key talent and continue to expand our partnerships.”

According to a recent March 2021 paper on the compact spectrometer systems market, emerging chip-size spectrometers are going to fuel growth to more than 300 million chips per year in 2024.

Spectricity was founded in 2018 by a team including research engineers from imec.