Koniku

Country:
USA
Founding year:
2015

Koniku is a California-based neurotechnology company developing wetware devices that integrate living biological neurons with silicon hardware to create hybrid sensing and computing systems. Founded in 2015 by Osh Agabi, a Nigerian-born theoretical physicist with a PhD in Computational Neuroscience from Imperial College London, the company is headquartered in San Rafael.

The company's flagship product, Konikore, is a neuron-silicon hybrid chip that uses engineered biological neurons equipped with olfactory receptors to detect and classify volatile organic compounds in real time. The system programs neurons with specific G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) that bind to targeted substances, with "reporter neurons" forming a biological-electronic interface to translate chemical detection into digital signals readable by the chip. The technology reportedly identifies over 4,000 compounds with parts-per-billion sensitivity in under 10 seconds.

Koniku has partnered with Airbus since 2017 to develop explosive and biohazard detection systems for aviation security, with deployments reported at San Francisco International Airport. Other target applications include disease diagnostics (breath-based biomarker detection), food authentication, agriculture, and environmental monitoring. In 2025, Koniku became a founding member of the Oracle Defense Ecosystem. The company holds 15 patents for neuron interfacing and wetware technology.

Tools and Infrastructure
Data Infrastructure
Experimental

Neurofounders Insights

Modality:
MEA
Form Factor:
Other
Interface Depth:
Ex vivo
Indication:
Research
Target user:
Mixed
Regulatory stage:
Research only

Series B

Koniku occupies a highly distinctive position as a wetware company using living neurons as biological sensors for chemical detection, setting it apart from conventional neural interface or imaging companies. Its commercial partnerships with Airbus and security deployments at SFO make it one of the few biocomputing companies with real-world validated hardware, though its neurotech classification is more adjacent to biosensing than brain-computer interfaces.

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