A healthtech company teaching beagles - and an AI platform - to sniff out four common cancers from a single breath sample you collect at home.
For decades, doctors have traded anecdotes about dogs that seemed to know a patient was sick before any scan did. SpotitEarly's premise is that the anecdote was data all along - and that a beagle's nose, paired with modern machine learning, can be turned into a scalable cancer screening test.
Founded in Israel in 2020 and now launching in the United States from a base in Englewood, New Jersey, SpotitEarly builds a non-invasive, at-home breath test for early cancer detection. The process is deliberately low-friction: a person collects a breath sample at home and mails it to the company's laboratory. There, trained beagles screen the sample for the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that cancers release, and SpotitEarly's proprietary LUCID platform digitizes and interprets the dogs' behavior to produce a result.
The test targets the four most common cancers - breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate. Rather than build a synthetic sensor sensitive enough to rival a dog's nose, the company kept the nose and built the software around it. A beagle carries up to 300 million olfactory receptors and can detect odors at concentrations as low as parts per trillion, which is the kind of sensitivity engineers spend fortunes trying to manufacture.
The stakes are simple arithmetic. Survival from most cancers is largely a function of timing: caught early, many are treatable; caught late, the odds fall sharply. SpotitEarly's founder, Shlomi Madar, has said his motivation was personal - he lost his grandfather to a cancer diagnosed too late for effective treatment. The company's mission is to make early screening routine and affordable rather than a one-time luxury.
That is the whole thesis in one line: make cancer screening non-invasive, mail-in, and cheap enough to repeat - so that "early" becomes the default, not the exception.
You collect a breath sample using an at-home kit - no clinic visit, no needle, no referral required.
The sealed sample is shipped to SpotitEarly's canine-AI laboratory for analysis within days.
Trained beagles sniff the sample and sit when they detect cancer-linked volatile organic compounds.
The LUCID platform measures sniff duration, hesitation, and posture, converting instinct into a digital diagnostic signal.
"By combining AI with a dog's powerful sense of smell, they're making early detection for multiple cancers faster, more accessible, and more affordable."
- Dr. David Sidransky, Advisory BoardConventional cancer screening is often invasive, expensive, or inconvenient - so many people delay or avoid it entirely, and cancers get caught later than they should. SpotitEarly's answer is to remove the friction: a breath sample instead of a scope, scan, or biopsy.
The test is designed for health-conscious consumers who want convenient, affordable screening without a clinic visit - distributed initially through U.S. physician networks. It is aimed at the broad public, not only affluent wellness shoppers.
No blood draw, no imaging, no procedure - just a breath sample collected at home.
Priced to be taken regularly, so screening becomes a routine habit rather than a rare event.
One breath sample screens for four common cancers, with additional cancers at a fraction of the first test's cost.
A mail-in breath kit that screens for breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancer. A single-cancer test is priced around $250; a four-cancer panel around $500. Not yet covered by insurance.
A proprietary system that pairs a multimodal sensor array with a deep-learning architecture to continuously monitor trained canines' behavioral and physiological signals, turning a dog's scent detection into scalable, standardized diagnostic output.
Genetic testing to complement breath-based screening for hereditary cancer risk.
SpotitEarly operates a direct-to-consumer and B2B2C model: customers buy a kit, breathe, and mail it back for analysis in a high-throughput canine-AI lab, distributed through physician networks.
Estimated capacity of a single canine-AI lab, with dogs working roughly two hours a day.
Samples are analyzed and returned within days of arriving at the lab.
Initial U.S. rollout runs through doctors rather than direct retail alone.
The multi-cancer early-detection field is crowded with high-priced options. SpotitEarly's differentiator is position, not just technology: it targets affordability and repeatability for everyone.
Multi-cancer blood tests require a draw and carry a higher price. SpotitEarly trades the needle for a breath sample and aims lower on cost.
Premium scans run $1,000-$2,500 and skew toward affluent wellness consumers. SpotitEarly is built for the broad population.
Traditional screens are cancer-specific and often invasive. One SpotitEarly breath sample covers four cancers at once.
"Creating a Future Where Everyone's in the Know."
- SpotitEarly's visionThe company's credibility rests on a peer-reviewed foundation. SpotitEarly ran a double-blind clinical study of 1,400 participants across three medical centers, where neither trainers, handlers, operators, nor analysts knew the source of any sample. The result - 94% sensitivity and specificity across the four target cancers - was published in Nature's Scientific Reports in November 2024.
Leadership pairs science with operating experience. CEO and board member Shlomi Madar, PhD, holds a doctorate from the Weizmann Institute of Science. The founding team includes a former K9 unit commander and serial entrepreneurs, reflecting the company's unusual blend of canine handling, biology, and software.
That expertise is being pressure-tested through research partnerships with major U.S. institutions - Hackensack Meridian Health and Fox Chase Cancer Center - designed to validate the dog-and-AI approach in American clinical settings. In July 2026, the company added a partnership with HITLAB to accelerate its U.S. launch.
The company also foregrounds animal welfare as part of its expertise, listing "canine care" among its core values alongside compassion, accuracy, and innovation - the dogs' nutrition, exercise, and wellbeing are treated as operational fundamentals, not afterthoughts.
Joint study of cancer detection pairing dogs with AI.
Strategic partnership bolstering validation of the detection technology.
Launched in Israel to combine trained canine scent detection with AI for early cancer screening.
Double-blind study of 1,400 people reporting 94% sensitivity and specificity appears in Scientific Reports (November).
Enters the U.S. market and opens a Series A round under Regulation D.
Selected as a Startup Battlefield company to demonstrate its dog-and-AI technology.
Partners with HITLAB to accelerate the U.S. launch as the at-home kit approaches consumer availability.
Announced May 2025 alongside the U.S. market launch; opened under Regulation D for accredited investors.
Cumulative funding to date to scale operations, run validation studies, and prepare commercial rollout.
Hanaco Ventures, Menomadin VC, Jeff Swartz (ex-Timberland CEO), and Avishai Abrahami (co-founder & CEO of Wix).
SpotitEarly's diagnostic "staff" includes 18 trained beagles that literally sit down when they smell cancer.
A beagle has up to 300 million olfactory receptors and can detect scents at parts-per-trillion concentrations.
The dogs work about two hours a day, yet one canine-AI lab can reach roughly 1.7 million tests per year.
Founder Shlomi Madar (PhD, Weizmann) built the company after losing his grandfather to a late-diagnosed cancer.
You collect a breath sample at home and mail it to SpotitEarly's lab. Trained beagles screen it for cancer-linked volatile organic compounds, and the LUCID AI platform digitizes and interprets the dogs' behavior to produce a result.
The test targets the four most common cancers: breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate.
A double-blind clinical study of 1,400 participants, published in Nature's Scientific Reports, reported 94% sensitivity and specificity.
A single-cancer test is priced at roughly $250, with a four-cancer panel around $500. The at-home kit is rolling out to U.S. consumers around 2026 and is not yet covered by insurance.
It was founded in Israel in 2020 and is led by CEO Shlomi Madar, PhD. It has raised $20.3M in its latest round ($34.3M total) from backers including Hanaco Ventures, Menomadin VC, Jeff Swartz, and Avishai Abrahami.