Knowing which mosquito species a trap has caught isn’t the same as knowing whether the insect carries dengue. Mosqitter, a Pennsylvania startup with 30 employees, is building on that distinction as it seeks to connect its traps into an AI-powered network. The aim is to identify species, follow changes in mosquito numbers and warn earlier about emerging disease risks.
“It’s very important to understand that Febris does not diagnose disease,” co-founder and CEO Anastasiia Romanova told TechCrunch, speaking about Mosqitter’s Febris Monitoring System. “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.”
Mosqitter plans to formally introduce the Febris Monitoring System next month. The system adds a data layer to track mosquito populations and evaluate how mosquito-borne diseases might spread. According to Romanova, the company now has more than 5,000 devices running on five continents. That compares with just over 250 when TechCrunch reported on Mosqitter in 2022.
Worldwide reports of dengue climbed from 6.5 million in 2023 to a record 14.6 million in 2024, more than doubling, the World Health Organization says. The viral illness spreads through mosquito bites. The WHO attributes changes in where disease-carrying mosquitoes can thrive to higher temperatures, altered rainfall patterns and global travel. Mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit are consequently reaching new territory.
How Mosqitter uses AI
Mosqitter uses a photograph of the trapped mosquito as the starting point for identification. A neural network processes the image, after which the output is compared with external datasets and reviewed by entomologists. The degree of agreement among these assessments sets the confidence score. As Romanova explained to TechCrunch, the computer-vision system examines biological characteristics to tell species apart.
“You can think about it as three judges analyzing a case and producing a verdict,” Romanova said.
The system takes in environmental information too, including weather, wind and humidity. As its data collection grows, Mosqitter says it intends to draw on those inputs to predict changes in mosquito populations and possible health risks.
On Wednesday, Mosqitter is presenting at the TechCrunch Startup Battlefield competition, which takes place this week in downtown San Francisco. Before developing this monitoring work, the company built chemical-free traps that mimic people’s heat, scent and breathing cues to lure female mosquitoes.
Mosqitter began research and development in Ukraine in 2019. Business operations followed in 2021, the year it regards as its official market launch. Romanova told TechCrunch that its goal was to introduce more sustainable mosquito-control products in a market where chemicals still dominate.
The company developed its approach around mosquito behavior. Only females bite, and they look for blood before laying eggs. They generally lay 100 to 200 eggs per batch on a cycle of about three weeks.
“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. “That’s why we combined elements such as heat, similar to the temperature of human skin; scent that imitates human skin odor; and light. In the Grand model,” which is Mosqitter’s top-end product, “we also use CO2 to imitate human breathing.”
Mosqitter’s main hardware lineup consists of two devices. Its flagship professional model, Mosqitter Grand, costs $1,999 and is intended for public spaces and larger areas. Mosqitter Mini costs $199, serves smaller residential spaces and can double as a portable device for monitoring.
That earlier emphasis on catching mosquitoes also explains the company’s name. COO and co-founder Olga Diachuk says “Mosqitter” combines “mosquito” and “eater.” The frequently assumed pairing of “mosquito” and “quitter” isn’t its origin.
From hardware sales to monitoring contracts
Unlike the hardware range, Febris is aimed at institutional customers requiring continuous monitoring: governments, public-health and mosquito-control agencies, airports, municipalities and universities. Mosqitter is seeking B2B partners around the world as well, Diachuk said. It is particularly interested in distributors that already have sales networks and relationships with governments and retailers.
Deployments of Febris at sites including Heathrow and Gatwick airports are part of Mosqitter’s work with the UK Health Security Agency. International travel can introduce mosquitoes and mosquito-borne diseases from elsewhere. Romanova says that possibility underscores why monitoring needs to be more continuous.
The co-founders say Mosqitter has established manufacturing and sales operations in Brazil, which carries a high dengue burden. Its other key markets are the U.S., Greece, India, Ukraine and Nigeria. Rather than follow one sales model everywhere, the company adjusts its approach for each market.
For Greece, that means working with a pest-control company that has been established for a long time. In the U.S., Mini is sold directly to consumers on Amazon and the company’s own website. Mosqitter earns money from selling hardware; Febris introduces recurring revenue for monitoring, dashboards, analytics and data services.
“We think this part of the business could grow substantially with the Febris Monitoring System because governments are major buyers of mosquito-surveillance data,” Romanova said.
Romanova says the company is heading toward more than $1 million in revenue for 2026. Revenue from Febris has started arriving only recently, but Mosqitter estimates its data business could bring in more than $3.5 million next year. That projection rests on the value of contracts for which it is currently bidding.
Mosqitter has raised $1.9 million so far and is seeking another $5 million in a round divided into two stages. The first is $1 million, with $4 million to follow. According to the company, the division is tied to milestones it intends to meet with the Febris Monitoring System.
