Todos
Preventing food loss with monitoring nanosensors
Todos Technologies has developed a smart, patented food sensing system that monitors produce throughout the supply chain, can detect early decay of fruits and vegetables in real-time and significantly reduce food waste and financial losses
122% of funding target
By: Yossi Levi
Successfully fundedAngel Investment
Investment type:
Company Stage:
Category:
Food & Agro
Highlights
Highlights
A Revolutionary Sensing Technology that Can Prevent Food Loss and Environmental Damage Worth Billions of Dollars a Year
Every year, 40% of the fruits and vegetables reach the garbage instead of our table—the majority of which occurs at strategic points throughout the supply chain, from the manufacturer to the distributor. The result is immense financial and environmental damage. To mitigate this phenomenon, Todos Technologies has developed a unique, affordable, and highly sensitive gas sensing system, dubbed GMOS, that selectively detects parts-per-billion concentration of gasses, such as ethylene (an indicator of fruit and vegetable ripening), and continuously measures it to monitor freshness level and reduce food waste throughout the supply chain. The company's reliable sensors can achieve 98% accuracy, as opposed to existing sensors on the market that measure other parameters (temperature, humidity), with a lower accuracy level.
Bringing the Global Data Revolution to the Produce Supply Chain
Todos has transformed the fruits and vegetables supply chain by making it an intelligent one, with the use of software, AI, and advanced algorithms, that provide data-driven notices. In this manner, importers and exporters alike can receive real-time updates about the condition of their products down to a specific pallet or package. This will allow them to make educated decisions and change the supply route accordingly, and even resolve disputes based on real, live data.
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- Green light - the fruit is good, continue transporting
- Yellow light - The fruit has started to ripen, pay attention and plan a local sale
- Red light - the fruit ripens quickly, please act immediately to sell it in the local market
Among the Company's Investors - the Technion R&D Foundation and Israeli Nobel Prize winner Prof. Dan Shechtman
Todos Technologies is backed by world-class investors, including the Technion Research and Development Foundation; Professor Dan Shechtman - winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry and the Israel Prize for Physics; and the Flow Jordan investment fund, which has invested in some of Israel's leading start-up companies in their early stages.
The Technology as a Platform: Varied Applications to the Company's Sensors
With the help of a data-accumulating AI engine of ethylene levels along with other factors (such as temperature, season, and location), the next generation of GMOS sensors will allow shelf-life prediction of fruits and vegetables. This will enable pricing that is based on the product's freshness level—a complete market game-changer.
Furthermore, Todos Technologies already has profit-generating products, including an infrared sensing technology (TMOS), based on which numerous reliable sensing solutions have been developed for security, environmental and medical purposes.
Strategic Partnerships and Pilots that Enhance the Platform's Reach
Todos has achieved a POC of GMOS, as well as conducted several incredibly successful pilots and field trials with Granot (the biggest avocado exporter in the Middle East); Carmel Blueberries; and another pilot planned for the end of this year with Silal, a leading tomato exporter in the United Emirates. Moreover, the company has existing partnerships with STMicroelectronics (a global semiconductor manufacturer) with whom the company has signed development and commercial agreements for the distribution of their first sensor for security and smart homes; and XFAB (a semiconductor developer), with whom manufacturing relations have been formed. These have spurred major interest within the industry—that is in search for an effective and reliable solution—in the form of many pre-orders, before development completion.
A Leading Team with Unmatched Industry Know-How
At the head of Todos Technologies is a team with industry-specific technical expertise, committed to delivering innovative sensing systems to the world. The professional staff is supported by a strategic committee of academics and researchers.
The company's Co-founder and Chairman of the Board, Shmuel Melman, is also the founder of Crow Electronic Engineering (a leading sensor technology manufacturer) and a well-known expert in sensing systems, with extensive industry experience. The company's Chief Scientist and Co-founder, Prof. Yael Nemirovsky, is an IEEE Life Fellow, a tenured member of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Technion, and a pioneer of advanced sensing systems, with hundreds of scientific papers and approved patents under her belt. Yael is also the recipient of the Security of Israel Award and the USA R&D 100 2001 Award, recognizing the USA's top 100 new inventions of the year.
Pitch
Pitch
Nowadays, 40% of all fruits and vegetables reach the garbage, the majority of which occurs during the storage and transportation process, due to over-ripening, by the time the product reaches its destination. This phenomenon leads to substantial financial losses, estimated at 100 billion dollars a year in the US alone, with a similar amount in Europe; extensive environmental damage due to greenhouse gas emissions and inadequate use of resources such as water and energy; and even provokes disputes among the importers and exporters in the supply chain. Numerous countries have made the mitigation of this problem a top priority—an example of which is the UN's objective to reduce food waste by 50%, by 2030.
The Need
In order to fight the food waste problem that occurs along the supply chain, various companies have made it their mission to develop different sensory solutions that will monitor the ripening process of fruits and vegetables during their storage and transportation. The existing technologies mostly monitor temperature—which enables limited accuracy, sensitivity and selectivity. Therefore, these are able to identify the ripening of fruit when it is already too late, without location-specific detection, so that the entire shipment is no longer marketable. Moreover, the existing, reliable sensors are expensive, bulky and require power connection—making them inconvenient and limiting—in terms of their distribution in cooling rooms and shipping containers and pallets, as well.
The Solution
With the unique, continuous ability to sense specific gasses emitted from ripe fruits and vegetables at minimal concentrations (parts-per-billion) in real-time, Todos Technologies' extremely accurate gas sensor, the GMOS, is a real industry game-changer. The data-driven, convenient sensor provides immediate alarms of the ripening process in specific areas of the shipment, enabling pointed removal or change in the transportation course, according to the freshness level of the produce. Thus, food waste, financial losses and environmental harm are dramatically reduced, as well as clients' satisfaction level improved.
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The Technology
Todos' sensory technology is based on the role of ethylene gas in the ripening of fruits and vegetables: a gas that is emitted by certain fruits which induces and accelerates the fruit's ripening process, while impacting nearby fruits in the same manner. Therefore, the ethylene gas can be used as an indicator of the fruits' freshness level, as well as an index that the chain reaction—which causes nearby fruits to ripen—has not occurred.
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The revolutionary Todos gas sensor, the GMOS, is based on a miniature, thermal sensor (IR). The sensor exhibits exceptionally high sensitivity to the change in temperature, which is caused by the gas's combustion reaction (in this case, ethylene). This change in temperature is translated to the gas concentration. The incredibly low power consumption is possible thanks to the sensor's incredibly high thermal sensitivity. The sensor itself is part of an innovative system based on IoT tools, advanced algorithms, AI and software tools, which all make up a comprehensive, breakthrough platform for various applications.
Team
Team
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Yossi is co-founder of Flow Jordan Investment firm and board member in leading start-up companies, such as NRgene and Virucure Therapeutics. With vast experience in finance, risk management and consulting to up-and-coming start-ups, Yossi‘s proven business success includes taking part in the establishment of successful companies and their acquisition.
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Founder of Crow Electronic Engineering and a leading designer and manufacturer of alarm systems (~600 employees in Israel and several branches outside Israel). Shmuel Melman is a well-known expert and leader in sensors and sensing systems with proven business success as an entrepreneur.
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Yael is an IEEE Life Fellow and is a tenured member of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Technion Institute of Technology. Yael is a pioneer of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) research in Israel and has published over 200 papers and filed numerous patents. She is the recipient of "The Award for the Security of Israel,” as well as the USA R&D 100 2001 award, which recognizes the USA‘s top 100 new inventions and products of the year.
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Assaf is a partner and board member in Magen369, a non-banking regulated company. In the last ten years, as an entrepreneur, he was involved in launching three start-ups and served in senior management positions in leading public companys. With extensive experience in business development, both in Israel and abroad, along with unique knowledge in funding investments & fundraising, Assaf specializes in growing small and medium companies to a larger scale.
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