Edinburgh-based Machines with Vision has secured a £2.6m investment to fund product development, sales growth and hiring of new research engineers.
The geo-spatial mapping firm counts Deutsche Bahn and Network Rail among its client base, with the new investment round led by Par Equity, alongside the University of Edinburgh’s in-house venture investment fund Old College Capital, former Skyscanner chief executive Gareth Williams, and Olaf Hesse, one of the company’s commercial team.
The innovation underpinning the technology is the creation of a visual map of the ground surface captured by sensors installed on the underside of vehicles such as trains.
Linking with sensors already on the train enables network operators to distinguish between suspected faults and actual defects, allowing predictive maintenance measures to be undertaken.
Anthony Ashbrook, chief executive and co-founder at Machines With Vision, said: “We are at the forefront of using data to radically improve the efficiency of railways and on the back of this investment round, we’re excited to bring more people on board to deliver on this vision.”
Aidan MacMillan, senior investment manager at Par Equity, said: “The fact that two of Europe’s largest railway infrastructure players are already using the technology developed by Machines With Vision gives you an idea of how far Anthony and his team have already progressed, and we are really pleased to be supporting the company through its next phase of growth and the commercial opportunities opening up for the business.”
In 2018, the company began a two-year technology trial on Network Rail’s new measurement train and in 2021, the company’s technology was procured for two new Network Rail diagnostic trains, with the fleet being further expanded in 2022.
In 2019, Machines With Vision entered into a commercial contract with Deutsche Bahn’s diagnostic train division, Fahrwegmessung, to improve the quality of its geo-spatial data.
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