A SCOTTISH firm behind sensor technology designed to help workplaces operate more productively has revealed plans to raise £1.2 million in seed funding as it looks to capitalise on growing demand for its systems.
Edinburgh-based Beringar unveiled its ambition after it received backing from RGA Ventures, a New York-based investment fund and start-up accelerator. It comes as a trial of the Beringar system is being carried at Caithness General Hospital in Wick, where it aims to demonstrate how its internet of things technology can be used to keep track of beds.
The maintenance of hospital beds, which are high-tech pieces of equipment with mechanical and hydraulic parts, is a major task for the NHS. But it is understood significant time is wasted by staff in locating where they are before work can be carried out.
Working alongside CENSIS, the Scottish Innovation Centre for Sensor and Imaging Systems, Beringar has devised a system involving electronic sensors being placed in each hospital room at the Wick hospital, with tags attached to each bed. The sensors then “listen” for the tags, so that whenever a bed appears within range it is picked up.
Mark Sorsa-Leslie, who co-founded Beringar with Paul Byrne in 2016, said: “We use a calculation to triangulate the position of the bed, so we can tell precisely which room it is in, and when it is moving.
“The issue is beds move around all the time, and the big problem is they need to be maintained – and they need to be maintained regularly. When [staff] get the job ticket to do the maintenance, they have to track down the bed and work out where it is. We’re starting with beds as a kind of proxy for any removable equipment that is in a hospital, but there is a particular issue with the beds.”
Asked if Beringar was able to quantify the benefits its technology can offer, Mr Sorsa-Leslie cited statistics from the Institute of Facilities Management,which suggest people undertaking this type of work can spend 20% of their time looking for equipment they are asked to maintain. He also pointed to a study published by Harvard University, which put the productivity cost arising from “bad space” at £4,500 per employee per year.
The Caithness trial, which comes after the company deployed its technology in Loxford Health centre in Illford, Essex, is scheduled to run for six months. The data collected so far suggests the system is having a positive effect on the efficiency of bed maintenance.
However, Mr Sorsa-Leslie said the potential of the technology goes far beyond the maintenance of NHS equipment, noting that the major focus of the company is on high-value commercial office buildings in large cities.
“The tracking is a feature of what we do, but the main thing we are doing as a business is about creating clever space” he said. “The vision we have is focused on the buildings, more than the asset. We’re trying to make sure we use the buildings as efficiently and productively as possible.”
The investment from RGA comes after Beringar went through an accelerator programme run by the fund.
Mr Sorsa-Leslie said the firm is looking to raise about £1.2m in seed investment to “get the product into the market quickly and meet the demand that we have. [There are] listed property companies that are really eager to get their hands on our solution.”
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