An award-winning pioneer of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has closed a £1.6 million funding round and received backing from Innovate UK.
PervasID was founded in 2011 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, has developed a passive RFID technology that enables “highly reliable reading” of standard passive RFID tags.
The money came from Cambridge Enterprise, Parkwalk, Cambridge Innovation Capital and Martlet.
PervasID use the additional funds to grow its delivery team, expand its reach into the healthcare, retail and industrial sectors, and provide essential innovation for its products.
“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,” said co-founder and CEO Sithamparanathan.
He added: “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.”
Since receiving its first round of funding in 2016, PervasID has expanded its product offering and now has over 30 corporate customers who use the patented 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.
Dr Elaine Loukes, investment director at Cambridge Enterprise, said: “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.”