Hound Labs Secures $20M From Entourage Effect Capital To Support Production Of Marijuana Breathalyzer

Hound Labs, Inc., a health tech company, confirmed Friday that it has secured a $20 million investment to support the production of the Hound Marijuana Breathalyzer. 

Its first commercial product, the Hound Marijuana Breathalyzer is the result of the company's patented ultra-sensitive technology capable of detecting recent cannabis use. Not measuring whether or how much a person is impaired, the breathalyzer is intended to be used only in law enforcement, employment and insurance settings.

What makes this technology superior to other testing methods is the ability to detect recent cannabis use by specifically measuring THC. The company noted that testing for THC in a person's breath, where it only remains for several hours before disappearing, is the only way for employers to know whether employees have used cannabis within hours of the test. 

Conventional drug testing of oral fluid, urine and hair can be effective for other drugs, but the cannabis detection window can cause employees to test positive for days, weeks or even months after impairment has subsided.

“The groundbreaking breath testing technology created by Hound Labs provides a substantial competitive advantage to the Company,” said Dov Szapiro, managing partner at Entourage Effect Capital, which led the investment round. “The Hound Labs team has accomplished an impressive scientific achievement – precisely and consistently targeting one specific type of molecule out of the more than 3,500 different compounds found in breath. Not only are we excited about the immediate capabilities of the Hound® breath technology to measure recent cannabis use, but we are also excited about future applications that can detect pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2 or biomarkers for disease by changing the targeted compound.”

In addition to Entourage Effect Capital, an investment company focused on the cannabis industry, other investors from the round included Intrinsic Capital, Benchmark, Icon Ventures and Tuatara Capital.

Hound Labs emphasized the importance of having a reliable test that can detect recent cannabis use, now that more and more states have legalized recreational marijuana. With little guidance from federal and state governments, employers have been faced with the untenable position of choosing between safety or fairness, the company noted.

Photo: Courtesy of Pavel Lozovikov on Unsplash