Food safety begins long before products reach supermarkets or processing facilities. Across global agricultural supply chains, farmers, grain traders, exporters, and food manufacturers depend on accurate testing to detect contamination that can affect crop quality, public health, and international trade. However, conventional laboratory testing often requires specialised equipment, trained personnel, and lengthy processing times, delaying critical decisions during harvesting, storage, and transportation. Italian agritech startup Aflabox is addressing this challenge by combining portable diagnostics with artificial intelligence, enabling food safety assessments to be performed directly in the field. The company has now secured fresh funding to accelerate the commercial rollout of its technology and expand into international markets.
Aflabox has raised €1.35 million in Seed funding to support the industrial scaling and commercialisation of its artificial intelligence powered food safety platform.
The investment was completed through FoodSeed, the agrifood accelerator within CDP Venture Capital’s National Accelerator Network managed by Eatable Adventures, with participation from Farming Future, the National Agrifood Technology Transfer Hub promoted by CDP Venture Capital SGR in partnership with ToSeed and Partners.
The funding will strengthen product development, manufacturing, and international expansion while supporting further advancement of the company’s artificial intelligence capabilities.
Modernising Food Safety Testing
Founded by Luca Alinovi and Fabrizio Cardillo, Aflabox has developed a field intelligence platform designed to simplify the detection of mycotoxins and evaluate the commercial quality of agricultural products.
The system enables food safety testing to be carried out directly where crops are grown, collected, stored, transported, and traded rather than relying exclusively on laboratory analysis.
Its portable solution combines ultraviolet and white light imaging, artificial intelligence, geolocated data collection, cloud based analytics, and compact hardware capable of producing digital test results in less than 90 seconds.
The technology provides users with immediate information that supports faster operational decisions across agricultural supply chains.
Replacing Slow Laboratory Processes
Traditional mycotoxin testing typically depends on specialised laboratories equipped with expensive analytical instruments, with results often taking several hours or even days.
These delays can create challenges for farmers, exporters, processors, and commodity traders who need rapid quality assessments before making commercial decisions.
Aflabox’s technology significantly shortens this process by delivering near real time results directly in the field while maintaining digital records that can be easily shared across the supply chain.
This faster approach improves operational efficiency while helping businesses respond more quickly to contamination risks and quality concerns.
Creating Smarter Agricultural Data
Beyond individual testing, Aflabox transforms every inspection into a valuable source of agricultural intelligence.
Each scan generates geolocated information that contributes to a growing database of contamination patterns, crop quality, and commercial value.
The aggregated data can be used to create territorial maps that improve traceability, support export certification, identify emerging food safety risks, and strengthen decision making across agricultural ecosystems.
Governments, food safety organisations, and industry participants can also use these insights to better target interventions and improve monitoring strategies.
Expanding Manufacturing and International Operations
The newly secured investment will support multiple strategic initiatives as Aflabox prepares for broader commercial deployment.
The company plans to complete validation and certification of its technology while further enhancing the accuracy of its artificial intelligence detection platform.
Funding will also support the establishment of a dedicated micro factory for manufacturing Aflabox devices at larger scale.
International expansion remains another major priority, with the company strengthening commercial activities in Kenya, Nigeria, and Italy while growing its distribution network across Africa and Europe.
Supporting the Future of Digital Agriculture
As agriculture increasingly embraces digital technologies, rapid field based diagnostics are becoming an essential tool for improving food quality, reducing waste, and strengthening global supply chains.
Artificial intelligence, portable sensing technologies, and cloud based data analytics are enabling producers to make more informed decisions throughout every stage of production and distribution.
With fresh funding and an expanding international strategy, Aflabox is positioning itself at the forefront of this transformation. By bringing laboratory quality testing directly into agricultural environments while generating valuable supply chain intelligence, the company aims to improve food safety, strengthen traceability, and help build a more resilient and data driven global agrifood system.