Sheffield smart sensor company, Tribosonics, has raised £1.1m from Mercia Equity Finance – part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund.
The company embeds sensors within bearings, and other moving parts, to create intelligent components, which can monitor friction and wear-and-tear. This helps firms to prevent critical failures and reduce energy use.
“We are a proud Sheffield business, flying the flag for Northern innovation, cutting edge engineering, and transformational IOT solutions,” said CEO Glenn Fletcher.
“This investment will provide the resources to significantly enhance our technology platform and to expand our very talented team as we rapidly scale our commercial activities globally, using our unique sensing technology to create a more sustainable and valuable future.”
Over the next 12 months, it hopes to grow its team of 23 to 33 and also invest in product development.
As part of the deal with Mercia, Rolls-Royce’s VP of Strategy will join the company as its Chair.
“Tribosonics is at the forefront of Industry 4.0, allowing businesses to unlock data from industrial systems. The solutions that it is developing have huge potential to advance systems design, improve productivity and reduce costs,” said Will Schaffer, Investment Manager at Mercia.
“As friction accounts for 23% of global energy use, they often have the added benefit of reducing carbon emissions. The investment will help Tribosonics to accelerate product development and to deepen customer relationships.”
Tribosonics was founded by Dr Phil Harper, a specialist in tribology (the science of wear, friction and lubrication). He is now CTO.
The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund project is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
