Edinburgh-based Beringar is one of nine companies to graduate from the R/GA Ventures IoT incubator, announcing plans to raise around £1.2 million in seed funding to meet growing demand.

The IoT Venture Studio incubator, created in partnership with Innovate UK, focuses on startups using IoT technology and connected spaces to create disruptive products and services. Companies participating in the program were given access to business transformation, strategic marketing, branding, design and technology services, as well as R/GA’s network of clients, industry partners, global brand leaders, mentors and investors.

NHS Trials Underway

Beringar is already trialing its technology in Caithness General Hospital in Wick, where it’s technology is tracking hospital beds.

Hospital beds are high-tech pieces of equipment with numerous mechanical and hydraulic parts. Keeping them maintained and serviced is a major task for the NHS, but just finding them can be problematic and lead to a lot of wasted time

Beringar worked with the Innovation Centre for Sensor and Imaging Systems (CENSIS) to create a system which tags each bed with an electronic ID and each room with a sensor which can identify the beds it contains.

Statistics from the Institute of Facilities Management, indicates that up to 20% of the time spent servicing beds is wasted on looking for the specific piece pf equipment. A Harvard University study puts the costs of this badly utilised space at around £4,500 per employee per year.

Positive Impact

Mark Sorsa-Leslie, the co-founder of Beringar, 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.”

The trial, in Caithness comes comes after the company deployed its technology for a six month trial in Loxford Health centre in Illford, Essex. Data collected so far indicates the system is having a positive effect on the efficiency of bed maintenance.

Smart Buildings

The potential for Beringar’s technology goes much further than NHS equipment. The company’s long-term goal is to focus on high-value city office buildings.

“…the main thing we are doing as a business is about creating clever space,” said Sorsa-Leslie. “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.”

According to Sorsa-Leslie, the company is now actively looking for seed funding of around £1.2m 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.”