SenSat, a UK-based company using artificial intelligence (AI) to unlock value in the Infrastructure industry, by using digital representations of real-world locations has raised a $10 million (€9 million) Series A funding round. The round was led by internet giant Tencent, with participation from Sistema Venture Capital. The company has so far raised $14.5M (€13.2M) in venture funding.
As per the press release, the new finance will be used to expand its London team of 30 experts by more than three-fold over the next year, as well as to drive continued international expansion. The company is focusing on hiring data scientists, mathematicians, software developers, and creative problem solvers.
According to the company, around $94 trillion in infrastructure investment is required by 2040 to sustain global growth predictions, yet Infrastructure is one of the least digitised sectors in the global economy.
Dr. Ling Ge, Chief European Representative at Tencent Holdings, who will be joining the SenSat board, explained:
We are delighted with our investment in SenSat, which aligns well with the ambitions of Tencent’s Cloud and Smart Industries Group. We believe SenSat is well-positioned to introduce mass digital automation to offline industries that have not yet engaged in the digital revolution, and we look forward to SenSat applying its platform to a broadening range of smart industries.
Expansion on cards
The company is planning to launch in the US in the coming months, with a focus on Nevada, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
SenSat – Digitising real-world places!
For the uninitiated, SenSat creates digital representations of real-world locations infusing real-time data sets from a variety of sources. The result is an accurate, digital, and up-to-date copy of the real world in a machine-readable format.
Harry Atkinson, Co-founder and Chief Data Officer of SenSat added
Infrastructure is the only sector to have had a 0% net productivity increase since the 1960s, with a history of inefficiencies in doing business, contributing to a staggering 61% of total UK waste. The result is an estimated $5.2 Trillion direct economic loss per year. Knowing this, we see a massive opportunity in allowing computers and AI to analyse the real world to help us grow more sustainably – an area in which SenSat is pioneering.
Digital twins!
Founded in 2015, the company is helping the organisation working in construction, mining, energy, and other industries to create “digital twins” of locations, relevant to projects they’re working on.
These digital twins are developed from various sources, including traffic data, 3Dimage data captured through satellites, drones, real-time data from wearables, physical sensors, and much more. This improves safety, cost-efficiency, waste generation, and project collaboration, and reduces the carbon generated in the project.
30 international infrastructure companies uses Mapp
SenSat uses a cloud-based platform called Mapp, which allows infrastructure companies to interact with their workplaces digitally by allowing digital automation to help them make better decisions with real-world data. Since the launch, Mapp has more than 30 international infrastructure companies using it now.
Adds major value to infrastructure companies
As part of a project with Murphy Group for the National Grid, SenSat digitised a 52 km underground transmission line as a part of the Triton Knoll offshore wind farm project, resulting in reducing time on site by 200%.
In another case, SenSat worked with Berkeley homes, recreating the physical environment digitally for the development of 10,000 new homes. SenSat’s Mapp has already provided major value to international infrastructure companies, such as Heathrow Airport, Kier, and WSP.
James Dean, Co-Founder and CEO of SenSat,
SenSat has a simple but profound goal: to build the third platform, an intelligent eco-system that translates the real world into a version understandable to AI. This technology will help us to build a more sustainable future, using the wealth of new insight to help humans make better decisions.
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