Stratuscent

About Stratuscent

Stratuscent, which rebranded to Noze in 2022, is a Canadian company specializing in digitizing the sense of smell. The company was incorporated in 2016 in Montreal and built its core technology on a foundation of NASA-patented innovations that were used on the International Space Station. The journey began in 2015 when founder and CTO, Dr. Ashok Masilamani, was inspired to digitize smell by leveraging advances in material science and AI. He secured an exclusive worldwide license for the NASA patents, which formed the basis for the company's first prototypes.

The company's core offering is a portable, real-time electronic nose (eNose) platform that uses chemical sensors and artificial intelligence to detect, identify, and analyze complex scents and airborne volatile organic compounds (VOCs). This technology creates a unique "scentprint" for different odors, allowing it to distinguish between various substances with high accuracy. The platform is designed to be "life-ready," capable of isolating specific smells from complex background environments. After a period of intensive technology development, Stratuscent was awarded its own patent in chemical-sensing systems.

Noze operates across several verticals, including healthcare, food quality, and air quality monitoring. In the medical field, the company is developing a breathalyzer to enable non-invasive screening for diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, and cancer by detecting specific biomarkers in a person's breath. A significant milestone was a $1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2023 to advance this breathalyzer for infectious diseases. In the food and agriculture sector, the technology is used to reduce waste by detecting spoilage in produce and monitoring food freshness. The company also developed air quality monitors, such as the NOZE and SafeScent devices, which can identify indoor pollutants, mold, and even airborne markers for viruses like Coronavirus and Influenza. Its business model includes making its technology available to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for integration into smart products, such as a collaboration with BSH (Bosch Siemens) for a smart cooktop.