附近上门

One of the nicest things about spring is that brief period when the sun is shining, the flowers are blooming, and mosquitoes are not yet out in droves.

It never lasts. As temperatures rise, bugs proliferate. On balmy summer evenings, enjoying the outdoors often later involves hours indoors scratching bites and applying aloe.

It鈥檚 not just discomfort. Globally, mosquitoes rank as the . Nor is it just a hazard of the great outdoors. Indoor pests like bed bugs are also finding new and unwelcome ways to thrive.

Overall, biting bugs represent a big enough market to intrigue both startups and investors. Companies with business models focused on repelling insects, killing mosquitoes and eliminating bed bugs have raised tens of millions in seed and venture funding in recent years.

To get a sense of where the money is going, we used 附近上门 data to curate a list of nine companies that have collectively raised over $40 million to date to battle bugs.

Mosquitoes

The most recent funding recipient, bug repellant brand , is also the most heavily capitalized. Last week, the Raleigh, North Carolina-based company it raised $8 million in a Series B round led by .

The new round brings total financing for the 10-year-old company to more than $17 million. It comes as Murphy鈥檚 is expanding its retail presence with products like a lemon eucalyptus oil mosquito and tick repellant expected to be on sale at and this year.

While Murphy鈥檚 markets to consumers, others are targeting customers like municipalities that control mosquito populations over a large area. In this camp is , an Israel-based startup that aims to reduce mosquito populations by overwhelming an area with sterile male insects.

The startup raised seed funding last year from and to develop a service that will enable municipal or real estate customers to subscribe and receive shipments of sterile males ready for release. Diptera claims the approach can reduce overall mosquito populations by more than 90%.

Bed bugs

Other startups are targeting pests inside the home.

Of course bed bugs never intended to attract the attention of startups. However, they鈥檝e arguably brought it upon themselves with their remarkable success in spreading to more homes, hotels, s and other places where pillows meet heads.

Currently, there are several recently funded startups tasked with making it easier to eliminate them. Among them is U.K.-based , which raised $3.8 million in December. The company has developed a bed bug monitoring system that counts several hotel chains as customers.

Another well-funded entrant in the space is Idaho-based , a platform for providing on-demand pest control to renters and property managers. The startup, which targets both bed bugs and other pests, picked up a $5.3 million financing in July led by proptech investor .

Big market

As anyone who鈥檚 suffered a bed bug infestation can tell you, getting rid of the pests isn鈥檛 cheap or easy.

Globally, the pest control market is estimated at annually, and is forecast to continue growing at a steady clip. Moreover, it鈥檚 not a sector like fine dining or new furniture, where people and businesses have discretion to decide when spending is appropriate. If you鈥檝e got bed bugs, you鈥檝e got to take quick action.

Mosquitoes, meanwhile, are also thriving. With climate change, more areas are able to host these flesh-biting creatures for longer periods of the year, of insect-borne disease.

Just thinking about it can make a person鈥檚 skin crawl. And while it鈥檚 slightly comforting to see funding to some startups with innovative approaches to insect bites and infestations, they鈥檒l need to scale a lot more to make a discernible dent in this persistent scourge of pestilence.

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Photo by聽听辞苍听