UK IoT startup OpenSensors, which provides data-driven workplace transformation solutions, has raised $4m (£3m) funding to scale its business.
The firm, which has 16 employees distributed across Europe, will use the new funds to support international demand and build roll out products and help customers reopen offices.
Founder Yodit Stanton, a twenty-year tech industry veteran and former refugee from East Africa, started the firm in 2016 when researching how environmental factors affected her daughter’s asthma.
She realised that inexpensive sensors could measure environmental health and air quality, such as CO2 and light intensity to understand and improve indoor spaces.
The firm now has more than 30 customers with complex real estate operations across North America, Ireland, UK and Europe.
OpenSensors’ tech is designed to helps companies manage costs and optimize resources,
reduce their environmental footprint, accelerate the move to flexible working, and
adapt workplaces to make them COVID-19 safe.
The firm points to research which suggests that occupancy, air quality and conditions can affect COVID-19 transmission.
OpenSensors tracks humidity, CO2 levels and more to guide on the optimal capacity to reduce transmission.
Yodit Stanton, CEO and founder of OpenSensors, commented: “There is a real opportunity for humanity to rethink how we use the physical world with sustainability in mind as well as making the design of workplaces better for people using them.
“Businesses need an efficient way to gather data about their office buildings to manage capacity so employees can return to the workplace safely and rethink design based on need rather than the status quo.”
Scott Sage, Partner at investor Crane Venture Partners added: “With data insights, real-world usage and known customer references, OpenSensors has all the ingredients to become a trusted advisor and solutions provider throughout COVID-19 and the immediate recovery, as well as supporting the shift towards more flexible working that COVID-19 has accelerated.”