Artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of things (IoT) technology company Homelync has graduated from its founding premises at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL) Hardware Incubator and taken up residence within neighbouring tech innovation hub Future Space in the Enterprise Zone of the University of the West of England (UWE).
Through the BRL Hardware Incubator – which supports high tech businesses from the robotics, electronics, sensor and automation sectors to commercialise their ideas – Homelync has created a smart home integration and data analytics platform for social landlords.
Integrating existing system information, data from market leading IoT technologies, and advanced machine learning techniques, the platform helps to reduce costs, improve customer services and solve some of society’s most pressing challenges including fuel poverty, health and social care, and CO2 emissions and water waste.
The company is growing rapidly having raised equity finance, completed several pilots and secured a number of customers. It is now carrying out the next round of deployments with landlords that have over 100,000 homes between them and has just moved in to its first commercial office at Future Space.
Whilst BRL will remain the base of Homelync’s hardware manufacturing and research and development (R&D), the commercial space will allow the company to focus on establishing and expanding its full support team and to take advantage of the on-site specialist business support available to Future Space residents at no added cost.
In recognition of its impressive work in the past 12 months, Homelync was recently named as one of three finalists in the Digital SME of the Year category of the Digital Leaders 100 list. The company has also been shortlisted for the Best Startup Award at the 2019 SPARKies tech and digital awards.
Mark Corderoy, incubation manager at the BRL, said: “Both located within the University Enterprise Zone (UEZ) at the heart of the main UWE Bristol Campus, BRL and Future Space in tandem provide a unique offering for start-up technology companies; one of the few hardware incubators in the country located alongside flexible and affordable commercial offices.
“The brilliant growth we’ve seen with Homelync is an indication that the ecosystem is working. It’s fantastic to see the company’s continued R&D taking place at BRL whilst it establishes its full commercial support team in its new offices at Future Space.”
Commenting on the move to the innovation hub, Homelync CEO Luke Loveridge said: “The office space is great and the additional support provided by Future Space – the drop-in sessions, training and networking opportunities – is invaluable.
“We are now in the middle of raising a significant funding round, expanding the team (and the office!) and delivering many projects and contracts. What is important to us is growing at a rapid but sustainable rate to ensure we make a real difference to peoples’ lives.”
