Allergy Amulet Bags $3.3 Million to Launch Food Allergen Sensor

Abigail Barnes, Founder

Allergy Amulet holds one issued U.S. patent with multiple applications, and its waitlist has thousands of individuals signed up to participate in an early beta release, scheduled to begin later this year.

FREMONT, CA: Allergy Amulet, the company empowering the food allergy community by alleviating fears about what's in their food, raised $3.3 million in seed funding led by TitletownTech, a joint venture between Microsoft and the Green Bay Packers. The company has developed the world's smallest and fastest consumer food allergen sensor, capable of testing foods for common allergenic ingredients in seconds.

The patented technology fits on a keychain, a necklace, a wristband, or a pocket, and it doubles as a medical alert system, making it easier and safer to manage food allergies and intolerances.

The sensor helps in:

Individuals with food allergies: It makes testing for food allergens easy, giving people additional assurances that their food is safe.

Parents with children who have food allergies: It gives parents another tool to manage their children's allergies, and helps children live a normal childhood, maintain independence, and safely attend sleepovers and birthday parties (or just school) with friends.

Businesses: It gives restaurant owners, schools, childcare providers, summer camps, and hotels the power of extra precaution to save them time, money, and worry.

"The current standard of care -- avoiding certain foods, injecting epinephrine to treat reactions, and visiting the emergency room -- can take a serious emotional, financial, and physical toll on individuals, caregivers, and families," said Abigail Barnes, Co-founder, and CEO of Allergy Amulet. "Our hope is to help individuals more safely engage in the activities that bring them joy, whether that means going to a restaurant with friends and family or eating a cupcake at a party."

The Allergy Amulet is a fast and portable food allergen and ingredient sensor, designed to fit every lifestyle. Its first-of-its-kind detection platform pairs molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) technology with a conductive electrochemical platform to detect target allergenic ingredients. It consists of a USB-sized reader (the "Amulet") and a test strip that houses the proprietary sensor chips. The case also holds epinephrine and antihistamines, giving users a complete allergy care management platform.

"Allergy Amulet is not only leading advancements in the field of imprinted sensor technology, they're also spearheading a new product category that will vastly improve the quality of life for millions of individuals with food allergies and intolerances," said Neil Mix, partner at TitletownTech. "Further, we saw the potential for broader food safety applications beyond allergens, including foodborne pathogens and contaminants. This is just the beginning, and we're thrilled to help the team take this on."

The funding will be used to manufacture beta units, help to launch pre-orders, expand product offerings to cover more allergens and grow the company's world-class team. It also plans to add additional restaurant and company partners to its roster and educate consumers on the benefits of additional food allergen management tools.

Allergy Amulet is slated for pre-sales fall of 2020 and launch fall of 2021.