Cambridge Tech Company Gets the Edge on AI
It’s been a year since InferSens raised its initial investment round and first joined the Growth Works community. Bev Hurley, Strategic Lead for Growth Works caught up with Dr Jana Voigt, CEO of the Cambridge-based Edge AI sensor technology company, to find out what’s been happening since.
It’s hard to believe that in December 2021 InferSens’ EdgeAI sensor technology was still in R&D prototyping stage, and the team was seeking equity funding to continue the development of their ground-breaking product.
But unwavering belief in their revolutionary approach, coupled with a great deal of hard work and skill, has paid off. And, in October 2022, InferSens announced the first application of its next generation sensor tech at the tinyML EMEA Innovation Forum in Cyprus to much audience excitement.
InferSens leverages a new wave of ultra-efficient neural accelerator silicon, which takes, clusters and classifies data at the edge at exceptionally fast and previously unachievable rates. These leading -edge chips enable InferSens to deliver on-device processing at almost 1% of the power required by traditional alternatives. The resultant data is accurately and efficiently synthesised to provide reliable, actionable insights, significantly reducing the volume of data transmitted with none of the usual challenges of fidelity, privacy, latency or impractical energy consumption.
Dr Voigt says “Using next-generation silicon is essential for what we do as it allows InferSens to deploy sensors in constrained built environments where there is no access to power and only low or non-existent network coverage. The global edgeAI chip market alone is likely to reach USD 9.6 billion in 2030, and we’re now recognised as being one of the very first businesses to commercialise their enormous potential.”
InferSens’ initial product application, set for release in Q3 2023, is a low-cost, non-invasive flow and temperature sensor designed to monitor and help detect Legionella risks in water transport systems. It is aimed at the commercial and public sector property market, which comprises 7.6 million entities in the UK alone and where regulatory governances require owners to routinely and competently monitor the risks of Legionella – the cause of a potentially fatal form of pneumonia contracted via contaminated water.
The simple clip-on installation and low cost of InferSens’ new breed of sensors allows for wide-scale deployment across a comprehensive range of sectors within the built environment and lends itself perfectly to many other high-value commercial applications where low power, rich data and smart sensing requirements converge.
Ahead of the formal product launch, InferSens has been engaging with customers for pilots, under commercial agreement, which include universities, hospitals, offices, hotels and a number of other important public facing properties
Dr Voigt continues, “For our long-term future, we plan to build on our EdgeAI core platform and open it up to adjacent opportunities across a variety of sectors.”
Since announcing the first application for its technology, InferSens has continued to go from strength to strength including winning two major accolades for innovation.
Recognising the organisation’s cutting-edge sensor technology, the first of two awards in 2023 was a top spot in the prestigious #21toWatch, announced in March. The team’s celebrations continued in May, winning Innovation Alley – set in the wider Cambridge Tech Week in May 2023 and home to the brightest start-ups.
Dr Voigt concludes, “I am incredibly proud to lead the hugely talented InferSens team as we push forward to the next exciting phase of our growth and achievement”.
“Alongside efficiency and effective risk management, there is a very strong sustainability aspect to what we do, particularly in terms of saving water, energy and carbon for every customer”.
With InferSens firmly set for a successful 2023 and beyond, Growth Works is delighted to be supporting the team with their next investment round.
For more information visit www.infersens.com
