Omnisense
CAMBRIDGE COMPANY TRACK THEIR SUCCESS
A Foundation East loan takes Omnisense to the next level
A major trial to evaluate how Omnisense’s technology can promote efficiencies in the logistics industry is just about to start. This is the break that the four founding members have been working towards for months without drawing a salary, and it has been made possible by their dedication and a loan from community finance organisation Foundation East.
Such was their belief in their technology that Omnisense’s founders worked for 18 months unpaid and without external funding before a small loan from Foundation East took them to the next level. This month they will make their first deliveries and they are recruiting new employees.
Omnisense’s wireless sensor system tracks the location of people or assets in real time using lightweight tags. It can be used, for example, by emergency services to ensure that the control centre knows the location of each rescuer or within healthcare to protect the welfare of the elderly living independently. Omnisense’s tags are unobtrusive and can be used by carers to monitor the location and behaviour of their patients, so quickly alert them to problems.
Adam Mills, Executive Chairman, says: “A few months after we founded Omnisense things became really exciting when our Chief Technical Officer David Bartlett realised that our technology could be taken a step further and work with no fixed infrastructure. This opens up huge possibilities because there are many situations such as mining or firefighting where you need to track people or objects in new areas.”
The company has been in discussion leaders in a number of different industries and received a very positive response. Trials are now starting in fields such as healthcare logistics and dairy.
Efficiency in the logistics business can be increased by tracking vehicles and cargo, and Omnisense is starting trials with a large trucking company. A key advantage of the Omnisense system is that the tags can locate each other even where there is no GPS signal, for example in depots, city streets or tunnels.
But to get to the stage where they were ready for trials, the technology required investments of time and money. Adam says: “After founding Omnisense in January 2009 we spent 18 months funding ourselves. But it started to become a strain, and we needed to buy expensive components for our prototypes.
“At that stage it was premature for us to obtain bank funding; we were too high risk. The banks were struggling with the financial crisis and, although we knew the technology would work, we didn’t yet have a product we could take orders for, so we couldn’t convince them of the large market we knew our technology could reach.”
In July 2010 Omnisense secured a loan from Foundation East, which allowed them to buy the components they needed to make prototypes. Foundation East is a membership society that provides loans of up to £50,000 to small companies that have a viable business plan and cash-flow analysis but cannot obtain bank finance.
The company had already secured a substantial European grant in partnership with a Spanish company, and the Foundation East loan bridged an awkward cash flow period before the grant could be drawn. It has also funded the build of products for the trials.
Peter Davis, Business Loans Manager for Foundation East, comments that the decision to lend is not made by a computer.
“Foundation East is a membership organisation and it is a panel of our members that make the final decision about loans. Although the company needs a good business plan and sound cash-flow projections we take the time to understand what its directors are trying to achieve. Our members are business people and professionals and they are able to assess a ‘risk worth taking’ and base the decision on this.
“For Omnisense, the loan has helped the company get off the starting blocks and start to generate revenue.’”
Support from Foundation East has really helped Omnisense to begin its expansion. Adam says: “We now employ two extra people and also rely on the specialist knowledge of local contractors. We’re based in Cambridge so we’re certainly in the right place to employ contractors with skills in advanced software and hardware development. Our team is set to grow as we hire more people in 2011.
“But it doesn’t end here. We are always working to develop our technology, and an exciting application for the future is to prevent oil spills by detecting pipeline slippages. We are really grateful to Foundation East for recognising the potential of our technology and providing the loan to help us get to where we are now.”