University of Cambridge spin-out Flusso raises $5.7m to scale-up production of world’s smallest flow sensors
From boilers to vacuum cleaners, ventilators to drug delivery, and data centres to fuel cells, its technology has a broad range of uses - and is the fraction of the size of a coin.
Flusso says its flow sensors are the smallest and smartest in the world.
Now the University of Cambridge spin-out has raised $5.7million in Series A funding to help it scale-up production.
Existing investor Parkwalk Advisors and new investor Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund led the round, which also featured 24 Haymarket, Cambridge Enterprise, Martlet and Cambridge Angels.
The semiconductor company, founded in 2016, is aiming to disrupt the flow meter market, which is worth $8billion a year, but is felt to be highly fragmented, with innovation lacking in consumer products in particular.
Flow meters are used in in industrial, automotive and medical products to monitor the movement of gas or liquid.
With its patent-protected technology, Flusso enables flow sensors to be made significantly smaller and more cheaply, with better functionality and no loss of performance.
Using a proprietary thermal technology, with no moving parts, the sensors are suitable for cost-effective high-volume production.
From heating and ventilation systems, filtration units and respiratory medical devices, the technology enables direct flow sensing for existing and future mass-market consumer products.
In many cases, flow-sensing components have in the past proved too large, expensive or difficult to integrate.
Dr Andrea De Luca, CEO and co-founder, said: “The energy efficiency of many products could be greatly improved if they incorporated gas and flow sensors, but companies are unable to do so due to cost, size, or manufacturing constraints.
“Our vision is to bring flow- and gas-sensing technologies to all these products. This funding round helps us to scale up and bring our vision to reality.”
The company, based at Deanland House in Cowley Road, Cambridge, uses a CMOS MEMS silicon platform, and its technology is packaged and assembled using a pure microelectronics approach to provide performance and scalability of manufacturing in tens of millions of parts per month.
It already has products commercially available, but the investment will enable Flusso to broaden its portfolio and technology.
Dr De Luca’s fellow co-founders Professor Florin Udrea - who also founded CamSemi, Cambridge CMOS Sensors, Cambridge Microelectronics, and Cambridge GaN Devices, Professor Julian Gardner - who co-founded Cambridge CMOS Sensors and Sorex - and Dr John Coull.
They are all sensor experts, experience in the semiconductor field, and have been joined by Robert Swann, an experienced entrepreneur specialising in early-stage semiconductor companies, as chairman, and Dr Cleopatra Cabuz, formerly VP of technology and partnerships in Honeywell’s safety and productivity solutions division.
John Pearson, investment manager at Parkwalk, said: “Parkwalk are delighted to continue to support the team at Flusso. The company has an exciting technology with multiple large scale applications and with this financing the highly experienced team has the resources to deliver on that promise.”
Nick Mettyear, investment manager at Foresight, said: “We are delighted to support Flusso in the next stage of development and accelerate the commercialisation of its existing products. Our unique collaboration with Williams Advanced Engineering and their expertise in fluid dynamics has already seen the Williams team supporting the company and providing valuable commercial insights.”
Taylors Vinters advised the company, while Mills & Reeve advised the investors.
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