£6m Series B round will accelerate roll-out of Focal Point products
Monday 15th March 2021
Today marks a major milestone, not just for the FocalPoint team but for everyone on the planet that uses location based technology.
We have secured £6m in Series B funding from Global venture capital firm, Draper Esprit to accelerate the roll-out of our highly accurate positioning technologies for any positioning-dependent device.
Accurate, reliable positioning and timing is vital not just for services we enjoy today, but for the multitudes of businesses of the future who will be able to build new products and services on top of our technologies. From the smartphone users, sports watch wearers, anyone who has ever hailed an uber or ordered delivery, through to stock traders and city planners who are designing smart cities of the future.
From ‘blue dot’ mapping accuracy on wearables and mobiles, to safety of autonomous vehicles and drones, to lower cost and lower battery consumption for industrial IoT devices, to security and protection from spoofing, our technologies address the global frustrations of inaccurate GNSS systems, which are critical to the accurate functioning of large swathes of modern technology.
The funding will enable us to accelerate our product roadmap, to get our technologies into more chips and devices - and to work with some of the world’s biggest providers of location-based hardware and software to enable next generation positioning accuracy and integrity.
Software and firmware solutions
We have built two flagship technologies; the award-winning Supercorrelation which is a chipset-level software product, and D-Tail™ an application- or firmware-level software product. Both technologies solve these positioning problems, providing unprecedented accuracy for GNSS systems. When combined they provide centimetre-level positioning indoors and outdoors , with a large range of use-cases from consumer to business and government.
In August 2020 we signed a deal with u‑blox, a global provider of leading positioning and wireless communication technologies, to integrate Supercorrelation technology into its commercial chips. We are currently running trials of Supercorrelation with a number of major chipset designers and consumer technology OEMs.
Here’s what our CEO, Dr Ramsey Faragher, had to say on the fundraise announcement:
“This is an important moment for our team. Signing our first deal to integrate Supercorrelation into a commercial chip has increased the demand for our products from a multitude of different industries and use cases. This funding will help us to meet that demand and enable Supercorrelation and D-Tail to improve the lives and businesses of people across the globe.”
What does this mean for those without a PhD in GNSS multipath interference?
The investment means we can continue to have commercial conversations with companies to deploy FocalPoint technology across their devices and location based services to improve:
Fitness and sports watch performance
Indoor navigation and wayfinding
Safety for the aviation and maritime industry
Asset tracking and site safety
In covering the announcement, The Telegraph highlighted the expected impact of our technology on smartphones, wearables, robotics and autonomous vehicles.
FocalPoint in the Telegraph
Help us change the world
Whilst we take stock and celebrate the fundraise news (a few of the team on the fundraise celebratory Zoom call, pictured below) we have the investment to supercharge our team. Becky Read, our Hiring Manager is looking for a VP of Product and had this to say:
“It's an exciting time for everyone working at FocalPoint, especially as we look to orchestrate a new flexible work approach that will assist in our continued business growth.”
