Hertz Innovation Tech

Hertz Innovative Tech is developing a kit for detecting bacterial cells from surfaces using a smartphone microscope. The evaluation of surface bacteria is critical in various settings such as healthcare facilities, food processing plants, and pharmaceutical factories. Currently, ATP-based swab assays occupy this market with a global market revenue size approximately $0.3 billion in 2023 and expecting to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.8% through 2028. However, ATP assays have limitations in terms of reliability (can’t differentiate between bacteria ATP and extracellular ATP), difficult to standardize and validate, and lack of cost-effectiveness. Our goal is to address this unmet need using our method which is based on a chemical coating technology to capture and detect bacteria cells under a low magnification microscope. Our method has shown superior performance as compared to the ATP assays in lab settings.