The funding round will accelerate production of chip-scale sensors that give any camera the ability to instantly analyze what it sees, from food and health checks to counterfeit detection and critical defence applications.
ESPOO, Finland | September 9th, 2025 — Agate Sensors, a startup developing smart sensors for material analysis, has raised €5.6 million to commercialize a breakthrough that shrinks spectroscopy from suitcase-sized lab equipment to a single pixel smaller than a grain of sand –integrated into a chip compact enough to sit on your fingertip. The Finnish startup’s technology allows devices to analyze the spectral signatures of materials in real time, bringing high-precision material sensing out of the lab and into everyday devices, from smartphones and wearables to medical equipment and defense systems. The round includes €4M in seed funding led by Voima Ventures and LIFTT, plus €1.6M in grants from Business Finland.
Spectral vision extends far beyond the three color bands visible to the human eye. By distinguishing hundreds of bands at once, Agate’s sensors give machines a kind of “superhuman” vision, enabling them to perceive details and distinctions invisible to conventional cameras.
“We’ve taken a spectrometer once confined to specialized labs and made it small and affordable enough to live inside everyday devices,” said Tommi Leino, CEO of Agate Sensors. “One sensor can shift between functions entirely through software — from diagnosing a health condition to detecting, identifying, and classifying objects and materials — changing how we interact with the physical world.”
Manufacturing of initial chips is expected by year-end, enabling proof-of-concept demonstrators throughout 2026 and first commercial smart wearable products targeted for late 2027.
“This funding allows us to commercialize a technology that fundamentally changes how machines perceive the world,” said Mikael Westerlund, CBO of Agate Sensors. “We’re not just building sensors, but enabling a new layer of light-based intelligence.”
Agate Sensors’ software-defined spectroscopy platform reads the “spectral signatures” of materials through light analysis. “This technology is the result of over a decade of research in semiconductor physics and nanotechnology at Aalto University,” said Dr. Andreas Liapis, CTO of Agate Sensors. “For the first time, we are able to bring laboratory-grade spectroscopy to an integrated form factor suitable for mass market use.”
“Agate Sensors’ platform is a leap forward in hyperspectral sensing: software-defined, scalable, and truly high-performance,” said Niko Elers, Investment Director at Voima Ventures. “It holds immense potential to reshape industries that rely on precise optical measurement, and we are very excited to support the company on the journey ahead.”
As AI and autonomous systems demand richer environmental understanding, Agate’s platform opens new dimensions in machine vision, enabling applications from multi-biomarker health monitoring in wearables, to detecting counterfeit goods in supply chains, identifying environmental hazards in industry, early intervention in smart agriculture and forestry, and more. These smart sensors capture rich spectral data and use advanced algorithms powered by AI to identify objects and classify materials in real time, allowing machines to see and understand their surroundings beyond what is possible by human vision, and to share this intelligence across networks for coordinated analysis.
Defense is among the earliest market-ready applications. For example, the sensors can distinguish between real foliage and synthetic camouflage materials, or identify specific vehicle types through their paint signatures.
“We believe this innovation will play a critical role in strengthening Europe’s technological sovereignty in defense and security,” said Pierluigi Freni, Project Manager at LIFTT. “For the first time, we have a technology capable of mass deployment that allows machines to understand what they see. This changes everything we know about spectral data usability and usage. We confirm our trust and belief in the Finnish innovation ecosystem, in which we have decided to continue investing together with LIFTT Euroinvest, the investment vehicle we share with the European Investment Bank”.
###
About Agate Sensors
Agate Sensors is redefining how machines perceive the world. Founded in 2024 as a spin-out from over a decade of pioneering research by the Photonics Group of Prof Zhipei Sun at Aalto University’s Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering, the company is commercialising a breakthrough in semiconductor physics that miniaturises spectral sensing to the scale of a single camera pixel.
Backed by top-tier publications including Science, Nature Communications, and Science Advances, Agate’s patented technology enables the convergence of photography, video, hyperspectral imaging, biosensing, and spectroscopy into a single, ultra-compact platform. This positions Agate at the forefront of a global shift in light-based intelligence, from defense and security to healthcare, environmental monitoring, and consumer electronics.
Led by CEO Tommi Leino, a veteran of Nokia and Microsoft with over 30 years in semiconductor product development, CTO Andreas Liapis, a scientist and innovator whose previous appointments include Aalto University and Harvard Medical School, and CBO Mikael Westerlund, who scaled a startup from 7 to 400 employees across global production sites, the team blends deep technical expertise with proven commercial execution.
Headquartered in Espoo, Finland, Agate Sensors is supported by leading European investors, including Voima Ventures and LIFTT. For more information, visit http://www.agatesensors.com.
About Voima Ventures
Voima Ventures is a Nordic venture capital firm investing in science-based and deep tech startups across the Nordics and Baltics. Founded in 2019, Voima supports early-stage companies emerging from university labs and research institutes. With its recently launched €100 million Fund III, Voima Ventures aims to back 25–30 high-impact startups that combine strong financial potential with transformative societal or environmental outcomes. Investment focus areas include life sciences, sustainable energy, quantum computing, advanced AI, and next-gen materials.
About LIFTT
LIFTT is an Italian Venture Capital operating with a multi-vertical approach in key technological industries: Energy Security, Critical Resources, Human Health & Aging, Infrastructure for data revolution, Industrial Automation & Space. To date it has raised €111 M from +200 institutional and private investors, and completed 56 investments in innovative start-ups, positioning as a key player in the Italian and European VC ecosystem.
To learn more, please visit www.liftt.com
About LIFTT Euroinvest
In 2024 the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Italian venture capital firm LIFTT have joined forces in a €100 million investment vehicle to spur equity investments in highly innovative European companies, active in key sectors such as life sciences, cybersecurity, deeptech and cleantech.