# Alex Wiltschko

> Alex Wiltschko is the founder and CEO of Osmo, a company teaching computers to read and write smell. An olfactory neuroscientist who spent roughly 18 years studying scent, he led the team at Google Brain that built an AI model predicting how a molecule smells from its chemical structure - work published in Science in 2023 as the Principal Odor Map. Osmo spun out of Google in 2022, and in 2024 it pulled off 'scent teleportation,' digitally capturing a fresh-cut summer plum and reprinting its smell in another room. In February 2026 the company raised a $70 million Series B led by Two Sigma Ventures.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at Osmo
- **Organizations:** Osmo, Google Brain / Google Research, Twitter, Whetlab, Syllable
- **From:** College Station, Texas, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S. in Neuroscience, University of Michigan, Ph.D. in Olfactory Neuroscience, Harvard University
- **Known for:** Founder and CEO of Osmo, spun out of Google Brain in 2022, Led the team that built the Principal Odor Map, published in Science (2023), Demonstrated complete digital scent capture and recreation ('scent teleportation') with a summer plum in 2024

## Career timeline

- **2011** — Co-founded Whetlab, a machine learning startup
- **2015** — Whetlab acquired by Twitter; helped establish Twitter's deep learning group
- **2016** — Earned Ph.D. in olfactory neuroscience from Harvard
- **2016** — Joined Google Brain / Google Research as a research scientist
- **2022** — Spun Osmo out of Google Brain to digitize the sense of smell
- **2023** — Published the Principal Odor Map in Science
- **2024** — Demonstrated 'scent teleportation' by capturing and reprinting a fresh-cut summer plum
- **2026** — Raised $70M Series B led by Two Sigma Ventures

## Achievements

- Founder and CEO of Osmo, spun out of Google Brain in 2022
- Led the team that built the Principal Odor Map, published in Science (2023)
- Demonstrated complete digital scent capture and recreation ('scent teleportation') with a summer plum in 2024
- Founded and exited two AI companies (Whetlab to Twitter; Syllable to Neumora)
- Named to Business Insider's Top 100 People in AI
- World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer
- Raised $70M Series B in 2026, bringing total funding to roughly $130M

## Latest updates

- **2026-02** — Osmo announced a $70M Series B led by Two Sigma Ventures, with Stripe's Patrick Collison among new investors, and expanded its executive team and New Jersey manufacturing.
- **2025-03** — Osmo advanced its scent teleportation technology and pushed into AI-assisted fragrance creation for the perfume industry.

## Links

- Website: https://osmo.ai
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-wiltschko-0a7b7537
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/awiltschko
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-SXISZKkPo

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/alex-wiltschko
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-14