Fragrance tech startup Patina has raised $2 million from Betaworks and True Ventures, proving that even a stale industry can be disrupted if you throw enough AI at it.
The company creates new scent molecules using molecular design, machine learning, and scent research - because describing smells as "floral" or "woody" is apparently still state-of-the-art in 2024. Most scent molecules currently come from a handful of specialized labs that sell to fragrance houses, which then turn them into perfumes or candles. Patina is trying to shake things up in an area that has seen about as much innovation as a 1970s shag carpet.
Founders Sean Raspet (an artist and perfumer who became obsessed with human senses) and Laura Sisson (a food and software engineer who discovered a whole field of sensory modeling) met at a scent art gallery in New York in 2024. Because where else would two people obsessed with smell connect? They launched Patina last year and developed Sense1, a foundation model designed to replicate scent receptors and create what they call "the first universal code of smell and taste." Working at the receptor level, Raspet says they can create "never-before-smelled molecules and reconstruct the world's rarest natural ingredients."
Patina is already in talks with top fragrance houses and fashion brands. The timing works: customers want "newer, safer and more expressive perfumes," Sisson says, and natural ingredients like rose oil are getting harder to produce and more expensive. Patina's synthetic alternatives can simulate rose oil at the biological level without needing actual roses - a process Raspet says is "less carbon-intensive than the original plant extract, consuming significantly less water and petrochemicals."
Competitors include startups like Osmo and incumbents Givaudan and Symrise. Patina also sees an opportunity in intellectual property: currently only fragrance molecules can be patented, not formulas, so scents get copied easily. AI makes creating custom ingredients cheaper and faster - weeks instead of years - letting smaller players protect their signature styles.
AI is also helping phase out animal testing by predicting human-skin reactions, and unlocking breakthroughs in understanding senses at a molecular level that seemed far-fetched five years ago. The new funding has moved Patina from Raspet's backyard into a proper Bushwick office with a small chemistry team. The long-term goal: a "Pantone for scent" - a universal system of primary scent molecules from which any smell can be built.
"The information has been there the whole time, waiting for the technology to catch up and a team with the right combination of expertise and obsession to unlock it," Raspet said. Translation: someone finally got around to digitizing smell.