This young startup is taking on a fragrance industry that hasn't changed in a almost half century | TechCrunch

Patina raised $2 million from investors including Betaworks and True Ventures. The company creates new scent molecules using advanced molecular design, machine learning, and scent research. Most scent molecules in consumer products come from a small set of specialized labs that sell ingredients to fragrance houses and cosmetics companies. Patina aims to change this supply chain by introducing more innovation. Founded by Sean Raspet and Laura Sisson, the company combines perfumery and art with food and software engineering. They met in 2024 at a scent art gallery and began collaborating on research. Patina launched Sense1, a foundational model that replicates nose scent receptors and aims to produce a universal code of smell and taste, replacing imprecise descriptors like “floral” and “woody.”

"Patina says it has raised $2 million in funding investors, including Betaworks and True Ventures. The company focuses on creating new scent molecules using advanced molecular design, machine learning, and scent research. Today, most of the scent molecules used in consumer products are created by a small number of specialized labs, which then sell those molecules to fragrance houses or cosmetics companies - the brands that ultimately turn them into perfumes, candles, or flavored products. Patina is trying to shake that up, entering an area that has seen little innovation in the past half century."

"“We started collaborating on research, and it became clear that the timing was right to finally build the tools to understand scent at the biological level,” Raspet told TechCrunch. “That felt like a company.” They launched Patina last year and began working on a foundational model called Sense1, designed to replicate the scent receptors in the nose and create what they describe as “the first universal code of smell and taste.”"

"Currently, researchers largely use words like “floral” or “woody” to describe smells, an imprecise system that leads to inconsistencies across regions and languages. Working on the receptor level, he said, allows them to create “never-before-smelled molecules and reconstruct the world's rarest natural i"

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