AmbiSense, a Dublin City University spin-out focused on developing sensor technologies for the environmental monitoring sector, has announced that it has secured investment of €1 million. The financing round was led by Atlantic Bridge’s University Bridge Fund, which has invested €750,000.

Five private investors who invested €170,000 in the venture in December 2014 followed on with another €50,000. The privates paid €23.56 per share in the new funding round compared with €7.09 per share in 2014. The five investors are Des Ryan, Ciaran Bolger, Michael Gallagher, Windal Ltd and Mieres Pension Fund.

The company said that Enterprise Ireland participated in the funding round, suggesting that the taxpayer has invested another €200,000 in the venture. Ambisense previously tapped the state agency for €250,000 in December 2014.

Ambisense booked a loss of €277,000 in 2015, bringing accumulated startup losses to €331,000. In 2016 the company released GasfluX, billed as the world’s first online, continuous and adaptive ground gas risk assessment platform for use in land remediation and waste management applications.

AmbiSense’s founders are CEO Stephen McNulty, Dr. Fiachra Collins and Professor Dermot Diamond. According to McNulty: “Since launching GasfluX last year, customer feedback has been incredibly positive. We now wish to rapidly expand our commercial presence and accelerate our R&D activities.

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“The opportunities to bring data analytics and a service model to traditional land asset management are exciting. Securing the backing of Atlantic Bridge enables us to do just that, as well as benefiting from their considerable experience working with successful, high-growth companies across multiple sectors”.

Chris Horn at Atlantic Bridge noted: “Atlantic Bridge is delighted to welcome AmbiSense to our growing portfolio of early-stage companies in the University Fund.  The company strongly represents the commercial strength of world-class academic research undertaken in Ireland, and illustrates how the University Bridge Fund can accelerate the global growth of such opportunities.”

The Atlantic Bridge University Bridge Fund is a €60m investment fund to accelerate the commercialisation of ground-breaking research and the scaling of global businesses.

Photo: Dermot Diamond (left), Fiachra Collins and Stephen McNulty (right)