This small startup is starting a fragrance business that hasn’t changed in almost half a century

Fragrance Tech Company Patina says it is raised $2 million in funding, including Betaworks and True Ventures.

The company focuses on developing new fragrance molecules using advanced molecular design, machine learning, and fragrance research. Today, most of the fragrance molecules used in consumer products are created by a few specialized labs, which sell these molecules to perfume houses or cosmetics companies – brands that eventually turn them into perfumes, candles, or fragrance products. Patina is trying to shake this up, entering an area that has not innovated in recent years.

The company was founded by Sean Raspet and Laura Sisson. Raspet is an artist and perfumer who, over time, became obsessed with human energy and started creating new aromatic and sweet molecules as a creative process. Sisson, meanwhile, came from a background in food and software engineering, and became obsessed with human emotions after discovering an entire field of science devoted to comparing them. The two met, naturally, at an art gallery in New York in 2024, where Raspet was demonstrating new molecules and Sisson was an engineer building models to study smell.

“We started collaborating on research, and it became clear that the time was right to finally develop tools to understand smell at a biological level,” Raspet told TechCrunch. “It feels like a company.”

He founded Patina last year and began working on the Sense1 startup, designed to match the olfactory receptors in the nose and create what he describes as “the first word of smell and taste.” Currently, researchers use words like “floral” or “woody” to describe scents, an imprecise system that causes regional and linguistic inconsistencies. Working at the host level, he said, allows them to create “molecules that have never been smelled before and rebuild the natural resources that are so lacking in the world.”

Patina said that they have already started negotiations to work with luxury perfume houses and fashion designers on the creation of fragrances. Time feels good. Consumers are increasingly looking for “fresh, safe and clear fragrances,” Sisson said. There is also a rush to the supply chain. Many natural ingredients such as rose oil are becoming difficult to produce and expensive – a problem that alternative methods of production can help solve. Patina molecules can mimic the scent of rose oil on a natural scale, mimicking natural ingredients without the need to remove the seeds.

“The result is much less carbon than the original plant, it consumes less water and petrochemicals,” said Raspet.

Other brands in this area include startups like Osmo and entrants like Givaudan and Symrise, two of the world’s biggest brands and fragrances.

For Patina, there is also an intellectual side to be aware of. Currently, only scent molecules can be recognized, not just formulas, meaning scents can be easily tracked. This benefits the big fragrance houses, the only players who can afford to create the perfect fragrance in the lab. AI has made the process cheaper and faster, allowing small companies like Patina to produce quality fragrances in weeks, not years.

“We think by expanding the palette, perfumers and perfumers of all sizes will be able to create and protect their signature style,” said Raspet.

AI is also changing other aspects of the fragrance industry. It helps eliminate animal testing, because the new models can accurately predict how people’s skin will react, Raspet said. And while understanding how scents work at the molecular level seemed elusive to researchers even five years ago, Patina’s team said AI is helping to understand how energy works at the molecular level.

Raspet said the new funding has allowed the team to move from his backyard to a proper office in Bushwick, Brooklyn, with a small team of chemists, and go on to develop new molecules and fund new projects.

“All samples need data to study, and we have been supporting the funding of the founders and academic labs to collect data on the stimulation of this receptor. At the same time, we believe that more comparisons of molecules and odorant receptors will be a great opening for scaling,” he said.

The long-term goal is to create what Raspet calls the “Pantone of scents” – meaning a global system for comparing colors used in the manufacturing and manufacturing industries – to establish the aromatic molecules that make up each scent or taste. “The idea has been there all this time, waiting for the technology to arrive and a team with the right combination of skills and passion to unlock it,” said Raspet. “These ideas can now become reality, Patina is the smart layer.”