Aflabox raises €1.35M to detect grain toxins at the source

Aflabox (Italy) has raised €1.35 million in a seed round led by FoodSeed — the agrifood vertical of CDP Venture Capital's National Accelerator Network, managed by Eatable Adventures — with Farming Future, the national agrifood technology transfer hub promoted by CDP Venture Capital SGR in partnership with ToSeed & Partners, also participating. The company was founded in July 2024 by Fabrizio Cardillo and Luca Alinovi and operates through a Nairobi entity, Aflazero Ltd, targeting grain supply chains in Kenya, Nigeria, and Italy.

FoodSeed co-invested in Nous, an Italian functional-ingredient startup, in July — its second ProYarn-covered agrifood commitment in six weeks.

The problem: contamination that moves faster than lab results

Aflatoxins and mycotoxins are fungal toxins that colonise maize, groundnuts, and stored grain, particularly in humid climates and during long-distance transit. They are carcinogenic at low concentrations and are a primary driver of crop rejection and regulatory seizures along African export corridors. The WHO estimates 25% of the world's food supply is affected by mycotoxins at any given time; post-harvest losses from contamination in sub-Saharan Africa can run to 30–40% of production in affected seasons.

Conventional detection relies on laboratory analysis: samples are taken, shipped, and tested in centralised facilities. The process takes days. By the time results arrive, decisions have been made and grain has changed hands — contaminated product may be several steps further down the supply chain. Aflabox's argument is that the bottleneck is not the chemistry but the logistics of testing: move the test to the point of collection and the decisions that follow become defensible.

Ninety seconds at the warehouse gate

Aflabox's device uses UV imaging combined with an AI model to detect aflatoxin and mycotoxin contamination in a grain sample in under 90 seconds. It is designed for field deployment — cooperative collection points, warehouse gates, port terminals, and rural trading posts — not equipped laboratory facilities. The founders describe it as bringing "laboratory quality into the field."

"We created Aflabox in response to a tangible problem we observed directly in the field," said Fabrizio Cardillo and Luca Alinovi. "When testing is distant, expensive and slow, too many decisions across the supply chain are made without reliable data."

The €1.35 million funds device validation and certification, construction of a micro-factory for production, commercial expansion across Kenya, Nigeria, and Italy, and further development of the AI detection platform.

The critical 18-month gate is regulatory certification: formal recognition from Kenyan, Nigerian, and EU food-safety authorities would make field results legally admissible in official inspections and export clearances. Without it, the device has real practical utility but limited enforcement weight. Distribution across fragmented African rural supply chains is structurally difficult even with a Nairobi presence. Running certification, production, and multi-country commercial operations in parallel on a €1.35M budget leaves little margin for the unexpected.