Anemo Labs secures £700K for AI 'sense of smell' disease detection

London-based Anemo Labs has secured £700,000 in pre-seed funding, led by Zinc and SFC Capita. The deeptech startup is developing AI technology designed to detect disease-related compounds through olfactory sensing. This positions Anemo Labs in the medtech and disease detection sectors, aiming to give AI a "sense of smell" for diagnostic purposes. The funding round was reported on 2026-09-09 by Anemo Labs lands £700K to give AI a sense of smell.

The digitisation of olfactory sensing for diagnostics represents a significant area of innovation. Prior research, such as the SMELLODI project, has explored smart electronic olfaction for body odor diagnostics. Running from April 2022 to September 2025, SMELLODI aimed to digitise the olfactory sense, focusing on storing, synthesising, and transmitting olfactory profiles. This project acknowledged that experienced physicians often rely on their sense of smell as an additional diagnostic tool, highlighting the potential of body odor profiles and volatilome analysis in disease detection.

Further efforts in this domain include the ReLiV project, which began in May 2024 and is scheduled to conclude in April 2027. ReLiV concentrates on real-time liver disease early diagnosis through exhaled Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) sensing. This initiative seeks to overcome existing limitations in nano-sensor technology for breath analysis, which frequently requires high operating temperatures and exhibits low sensitivity to breath VOCs. ReLiV aims to develop accurate, inexpensive, and real-time diagnostics for conditions such as liver disease and steatosis, leveraging nanotechnology to create community-accessible diagnostic tools.

Anemo Labs' approach aligns with these advancements by targeting disease-related compounds with AI. Their work seeks to interpret complex olfactory data, potentially offering new methods for early and non-invasive detection of various health conditions. The investment from Zinc and SFC Capita underscores confidence in this deeptech application.

What this means: This funding will advance Anemo Labs' proprietary AI technology, contributing to the growing field of electronic olfaction and breath analysis for medical diagnostics. The investment underscores continued interest in deeptech solutions that can transform healthcare through novel sensing capabilities, potentially leading to earlier disease detection and improved patient outcomes.