Food safety start-up raises $9 million

Abstract

Branford, Conn.-based start-up Ancera has raised $9 million in a first round of funding to help it commercialize technology that swiftly identifies microbial food safety hazards such as Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli. Investors included the food safety companies Packers Sanitation Services and Metabiota. Current detection systems require an often days-long incubation followed by a multistep laboratory identification process. Ancera’s PIPER technology uses a ferrofluid and magnet to manipulate, sort, and count viable pathogens from a sample.