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PervasID, an award-winning RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology provider, today announces that it has secured £1.6 million in Series A funding. The technology, which was pioneered at the University of Cambridge and achieves more than 99 percent tag detection, was also awarded £240,000 from Innovate UK.
Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s commercialisation arm, has backed the technology, along with Parkwalk, Cambridge Innovation Capital and Martlet, the investment arm of Marshall of Cambridge Group. PervasID will use the funds to grow its delivery team, expand its reach into the healthcare, retail and industrial sectors and provide essential innovation for its products.
PervasID, which spun out of the Department of Engineering in 2011, was co-founded by Dr Sabesan Sithamparanathan, Dr Michael Crisp, Professor Ian White and Professor Richard Penty. The company, which is based at St John’s Innovation Centre, Cambridge, has developed a passive RFID solution that enables highly reliable reading of standard passive RFID tags.
Since receiving its first round of funding in 2016, PervasID has expanded its product offering and now has over 30 corporate customers using the technology, which achieves almost 100 per cent detection. The technology provides location information in a wide-area read-zone and can scale up to service larger areas, such as shops and warehouses, in order to provide better stock visibility. It can also integrate with existing alarm systems to alert of theft, making it, in the words of one of PervasID’s major tier-one retail customers, “arguably the best and the only solution up to the challenge facing modern retailing.”
Dr Sithamparanathan, co-founder and CEO comments, “We are very pleased to have successfully closed this funding round which will help us innovate and develop our product further. The investment we have received from local investors is a particularly proud moment for us as they are backing technology that has been pioneered at the University of Cambridge. This highlights the importance of supporting research and development.”
He continues, “Along with the Innovate UK grant, this funding will help us expand our team and therefore our expertise, which will allow us to continue to innovate our product offering in the future.”
Dr Elaine Loukes, Investment Director at Cambridge Enterprise, comments: “We are delighted to continue to support the company. With its expanded range of products and market applications, many customers are recognising the benefits of the PervasID technology.”
Moray Wright, CEO, Parkwalk adds, “Parkwalk is delighted to have invested in this globally-leading RFID technology that will enable customers around the world the ability to monitor their assets in real time. The fundamental research behind the technology is groundbreaking and opens new opportunities for passive RFID in a range of markets.”
Peter Cowley, Investment Director at Martlet, a very active technology angel investor, comments, “We’re pleased to be backing another innovative Cambridge technology start-up that offers a technical advantage over existing RFID tracking solutions, providing much better performance at lower cost. With my background in developing and selling RFID solutions across multiple sectors for over two decades, I will be able to support the company in delivering value to customers and achieving its growth plans.”