Mosqitter Turns 5,000 Mosquito Traps Into an AI Disease-Warning Network

By Grace Kim

Global dengue cases more than doubled in a single year, from 6.5 million in 2023 to a record 14.6 million in 2024, according to the World Health Organization. A 30-person Pennsylvania startup called Mosqitter is betting that the answer to that surge is not just killing mosquitoes but watching them — with AI.

Mosqitter has grown from just over 250 devices when TechCrunch covered it in 2022 to more than 5,000 traps operating across five continents today, co-founder and CEO Anastasiia Romanova said. The company presented Wednesday at TechCrunch's Startup Battlefield competition in downtown San Francisco, where it laid out plans to turn those traps into an AI-powered surveillance network.

How does a trap spot a species?

The hardware is chemical-free. Female mosquitoes — the only ones that bite — seek blood before laying eggs, typically 100 to 200 eggs on a roughly three-week cycle. Mosqitter's devices exploit that behavior by mimicking human cues.

"We saw an opportunity: if we could catch the female mosquito at the point when she is about to lay eggs, we could potentially reduce the mosquito population and prevent it from growing," Romanova said. The traps combine heat similar to human skin temperature, scent imitating skin odor, and light. The flagship Grand model, priced at $1,999, adds CO2 to imitate human breathing. The residential Mini retails at $199.

The AI layer sits on top. Mosqitter runs an image of each caught mosquito through a neural network, checks the result against external datasets, and has entomologists validate the findings. Each identification gets a confidence score based on how closely the assessments align.

"You can think about it as three judges analyzing a case and producing a verdict," Romanova said. The system also ingests weather, wind and humidity data, and the company plans to use those inputs to forecast population changes and potential health risks.

What changes with the Febris Monitoring System?

Next month, Mosqitter officially introduces Febris, a data layer that monitors mosquito populations and assesses the potential spread of mosquito-borne diseases. It targets institutional buyers: governments, public-health and mosquito-control agencies, airports, municipalities and universities.

Romanova is careful about what Febris claims. "It's very important to understand that Febris does not diagnose disease," she said. "We can't say with certainty that a particular mosquito carries dengue. What we can say is that a particular mosquito species is present, and knowing that can help indicate an increased potential risk associated with diseases that species can transmit."

The UK Health Security Agency is already working with Mosqitter to deploy Febris at sites including Heathrow and Gatwick airports. International travel can carry mosquitoes and their diseases across borders, which Romanova says underscores the need for continuous monitoring.

Where is the money?

Mosqitter began R&D in Ukraine in 2019 and went to market in 2021. Today it runs local manufacturing and sales operations in Brazil, a high-burden dengue market, and counts the U.S., Greece, India, Ukraine and Nigeria as key markets — each with a different sales approach. In Greece, it partners with a long-established pest-control company. In the U.S., it sells the Mini directly to consumers via Amazon and its own website.

Revenue currently comes from hardware. Febris adds recurring income from monitoring, dashboards, analytics and data services. Romanova said Mosqitter is on track to generate more than $1 million in revenue in 2026, and the company projects the data business alone could bring in more than $3.5 million next year, based on the value of contracts it is currently bidding on.

The company is raising a $5 million round in two tranches — $1 million first, then $4 million — tied to Febris milestones. It has raised $1.9 million to date. COO and co-founder Olga Diachuk said the company is seeking B2B partners globally, particularly distributors with government and retail relationships.

The name, despite appearances, combines "mosquito" and "eater," Diachuk said — not "quitter." With governments as major buyers of surveillance data, Mosqitter is betting the watching business outgrows the trapping business.