LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Imperial Innovations Group plc has announced the formation of Inflowmatix (the “Company”) a spin-out from Imperial College London that will provide water flow and system health analytics to water utilities worldwide. The technology allows network operators to continuously monitor, diagnose and manage hydraulic instabilities, leading to reduced bursts, leakage and operating costs and enabling prioritised network maintenance. Innovations has committed £1m in seed funding to enable Inflowmatix to further develop its existing and already deployed prototypes.
Inflowmatix originates from Dr Ivan Stoianov’s InfraSense Labs, part of Imperial College London’s Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. The interdisciplinary team has expertise in hydraulic and water quality modelling, model predictive control, embedded electronic systems and data analytics. Its patent-protected prototype product is InfraSense TS, developed specifically for the near real-time, continuous monitoring and analysis of the dynamic hydraulic conditions in transmission and distribution systems.
Prior to joining Imperial, Dr Stoianov worked at MIT, developing wireless sensor networks for potable water and sewer systems for the City of Boston in collaboration with Intel Research. Dr Stoianov and colleagues from Imperial College and Cambridge University won the 2010 Telford Gold Medal award of the Institution of Civil Engineers for their paper "Wireless Sensor Networks: Creating Smart Infrastructure".
Imperial Innovations and Dr Stoianov have together brought in an experienced management team including Chairman Dr David Parker (FREng). Dr Parker has extensive experience in building companies from early stage, for example at the University of Southampton spin-out Perpetuum where he is Chairman, and in private and public exits, along with a long career in senior management in technology corporates. Notable companies include HP, Agilent Technologies, Marconi, SPI and TRUMPF.
Dr Ivan Stoianov, founder of Inflowmatix, said:
“Much of the existing water infrastructure in many countries is approaching the end of its usable lifetime while expected to provide high quality of service to increasing population. In London, for example, almost half the water pipes are over 100 years old and many pumping stations are more than 40 years old. The optimal use of limited resources require continuous and near real-time information about the hydraulic behaviour of such complex systems to optimise their performance and improve incident management. Imperial Innovations has been very supportive throughout the development and spinout process and I am very pleased that they have also decided to back us.”
Dr David Parker (FREng), founding Chairman of Inflowmatix, said:
“I have been extremely impressed by what the team has achieved to date both technically and commercially and I look forward to working with them in creating a great business that can really enhance the capabilities available to our customers.”
Kelsey Lynn Skinner, Director Technology Ventures at Imperial Innovations, said:
“Ivan and his lab have developed outstanding IP which offers significant benefits to water utility companies worldwide that need to balance the management of ageing infrastructure with the demands of a growing population.
“It is an exciting opportunity and a great example of how we can support scientists at Imperial from IP development and protection, through to company formation and beyond in a complex B2B market.”
For more information visit the Inflowmatix website: www.inflowmatix.com
