Cyprus venture capital firm backs new approach to pet health monitoring

Kinisis Ventures joins $1.8m funding round in pet health AI startupCyprus-based venture capital firm Kinisis Ventures has joined a $1.8 million pre-seed funding round in Janus Labs AI, a US startup developing contactless neural artificial intelligence technology designed to monitor the health and wellbeing of pets. The investment forms part of a round led by New York Angels, with participation from Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of Greater New York and SkyRiver Ventures, as Janus seeks to develop a new category of personalised pet health technology. The latest funding brings the company’s total capital raised to $2.6m, which will be used to advance its technology for monitoring the health of dogs and cats. Janus Labs AI is developing a patented system that measures brain activity without physical contact, combining neural information with physiological data to build individual profiles of animals. Its artificial intelligence technology interprets each pet’s unique patterns to monitor physical and mental wellbeing, identify potential early changes in health and recommend personalised care and enrichment activities. The company aims to offer a different approach to existing pet-monitoring products, which generally rely on GPS tracking, vital signs, activity monitoring or periodic diagnostic testing. Instead, Janus is seeking to capture a previously unexplored layer of neural health information, potentially allowing owners to gain a deeper understanding of their pets’ condition and behaviour. Its longer-term ambition is to help bridge the communication gap between humans and animals, strengthening the bond between pets and their owners, with potential applications also extending to infant health monitoring. “We’re not interested in building another pet tracker,” said Janus co-founder and chief executive Shaun Westbrook. “Our technology enables, for the first time, a real understanding of what’s going on inside our pets’ minds,” Westbrook stated. “Janus provides the closest thing to being able to have a conversation with your pet, with profound implications for your pet’s health, quality of life and wellbeing,” he added. Tom Hirschfeld, representing New York Angels and Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of Greater New York, said his experience as an early investor in companies, including pet longevity specialist Loyal Animal Health, had given him the opportunity to reconsider approaches to animal health and longevity. “Janus brings a valuable new dimension to that progress, using neural technology to give pet owners insights they’ve never had access to before,” Hirschfeld said. SkyRiver Ventures general partner Hyuk-Jeen Suh, founder and former head of Samsung Ventures’ East Coast office, said the startup combined advanced sensing technology with a promising opportunity in personalised pet health. “I see strong potential in its proprietary technology and ability to create an entirely new consumer health category,” Suh said. Kinisis Ventures co-founder Andreas Panayi said Janus was pursuing a substantially different approach in a pet technology market that had become increasingly crowded with activity trackers. “Janus Labs is going after something genuinely different in a pet-tech market that has grown crowded with activity trackers,” Panayi said. He explained that Kinisis had been closely monitoring the wider smart sensor market, particularly the combination of hardware, AI software and advanced data analytics, adding that Janus represented a strong example of how these technologies could be applied to an underserved sector. “We look for founders willing to build the hard, unproven layer of a category rather than the easy, overcrowded and predictable one, and that’s exactly what the Janus founders are doing here,” Panayi stated. “We’re glad to back them,” he added. Janus Labs AI announced that it had secured nine US patents, conducted five published human studies and completed advanced clinical validation across multiple dog breeds, giving it a neuroscience-based foundation in the pet health sector. Its founding team brings together expertise in neuroscience, artificial intelligence, consumer technology, animal health and commercialisation. The company completed the 2026 SOSV NY/IndieBio accelerator, won Best Product at The Ventures Startup Awards during NY Tech Week 2026 and was selected among the top 10 startups at the SF Tech Week Consumer AI Pitch Fest. The investment reflects Kinisis Ventures’ interest in the broader smart sensor sector, where the combination of hardware, AI and data analytics is increasingly being applied to new consumer markets.