The family of celebrated audio engineer Ray Dolby has invested in a DCU start-up Ubotica Technologies which has a focus on satellite technology.
Ubotica Technologies, where some of the principals were involved with Movidius, acquired by Intel a few years ago, has closed a seed funding round of €4m.
The investment round was led by venture capital company Atlantic Bridge. Also investing are Dolby Family Ventures and Serpahim Space Investment Trust which is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Ray Dolby, who died in 2013, developed audio-processing systems in the 1960s that eliminate background noise.
Dolby Noise Reduction was developed with cassette tapes and VHS tapes in mind, and was then applied to film sound.
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Dolby’s patented invention boosts low-level high-frequency sounds during recording and decreases them symmetrically during playback, which also decreases the audible level of tape hiss.
His widow Dagmar Dolby’s fortunes was recently estimated at c.$5 billion.
Founded in 2017, Ubotica Technologies aims to provide real-time actionable insights direct to users from space with its energy efficient CogniSat on-board processing system.
Fintan Buckley, co-founder and CEO, explained: “The Ubotica CogniSat platform was developed by technology innovators with deep insight of processing hardware, computer vision software and AI system integration.
“CogniSat technology has already been flight proven in space projects with partners in Europe and the USA, including with NASA JPL on the International Space Station and with the European Space Agency on Φ-Sat-1.”
Gerry Maguire, general partner at Atlantic Bridge, commented: “Based on the team’s 15-year heritage developing hardware for edge systems at Movidius, we are confident that Ubotica Technologies has an excellent foundation on which to advance this rapidly growing business.”
Ubotica is currently hiring for specific roles to support the planned growth. Details are available here.
