PathSpot, which makes a scanner that ensures restaurant workers have washed their hands thoroughly (i.e. no poop hands), announced today it has closed an additional $2 million in seed funding. This brings the total amount of seed funding raised by the company to $4 million.
Restaurants can install PathSpot’s device in their bathrooms. The devices use visible fluorescent spectroscopy to examine washed hands for pathogens that could carry foodborne illnesses. As we wrote about PathSpot last year:
Once lit up, PathSpot can “see” any contaminants not visible to the naked eye still left on the hands. PathSpot looks for indicators behind 98 percent of all food borne illness types and protects against a broad range of food borne illness such as E.Coli, Salmonella, Norovirus, Hep A, Listeria, and many others. If contaminants are found, the PathSpot screen displays a red X and employees should re-wash and re-test their hands. Sites can choose whether they want people to identify themselves at the scanner or not. PathSpot then collects this data and gives it to restaurant management to determine where any breakdowns are in their sanitation procedures.
The Center for Disease Control “estimates 48 million people get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from foodborne diseases each year in the United States.” So it’s not hard to see why limiting the number of vectors of attack for these pathogens is important. And for restaurants operating on thin margins, installing technology to help prevent food poisoning could aid against the kinds of liabilities that cost restaurants millions of dollars.
PathSpot’s total seed round has been led by FIKA Ventures and Walden Venture Capita. The company says it will use the new money to build out its development, sales and marketing teams as well as ramp up production.
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