Labby

Labby develops optical sensing and AI technology for real-time milk testing in the dairy supply chain. Its spectrometer-based system measures fat and protein content in milk and counts somatic cells, whose levels rise in the presence of bacterial infection, enabling dairy farmers to detect mastitis without sending samples to a laboratory and waiting for results.

The company offers two products: a Bluetooth-enabled handheld device that pairs with a smartphone and returns test results within about five seconds, and an in-line sensor installed at milking stations for automated testing. Company materials position the technology as supporting animal health monitoring, milk biosecurity, supply chain transparency and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and waste in dairy operations.

An earlier description of the company, published on the Techstars job board, characterizes Labby as an on-the-go food and beverage testing device aimed at the beer and wine production industry, with applications including counterfeit detection and quality control for breweries, sommeliers and homebrewers.

Founding story

Julia Somerdin, who studied electronic engineering as an undergraduate and holds a high-tech MBA, worked in enterprise hardware and software across wireless networking and healthcare at multinational and Fortune 500 companies in roles including principal engineer, technical sales and technical project lead. She has said that returning to school at MIT provided the environment for her transition from a corporate career to founding a startup. The original vision was to bring laboratory test technology into the dairy field so farmers could identify mastitis-infected animals in real time and treat them sooner, saving time and money.

Business model

Labby sells hardware plus an accompanying analytics service to dairy producers, cooperatives and processors. Its handheld device is a portable manual testing tool for farmers and veterinarians, while the in-line sensing device is installed at each milking station for fully automatic testing and can be retrofitted into existing parlor milking systems; the two products can be used together or independently.

Revenue is generated from sales of testing hardware and an accompanying analytics service to dairy customers; the company reported that its primary focus while scaling from pilots is revenue generation.

Traction

Labby ran pilots with dairy farmers in Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania, with additional North American farms beginning pilots, and was working on second-generation hardware and software. By October 2022 the company described itself as moving from the pilot phase to scale-up with a focus on revenue generation, and reported pilot customers and advisory board members drawn from dairy industry experts. The Techstars job board lists the company at 1-10 employees.

Latest developments

As of an October 2022 founder interview, Labby described itself as scaling up from the pilot stage with revenue generation and customer satisfaction as its primary measures of success, and said it was pursuing government funds, grants and private funding. In the same month it was named to the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield 20 and was the subject of TechCrunch coverage on its milk sensing technology. TechCrunch listed $1.2 million raised as of January 1, 2025, and an operating status of open.