Cambridge-based start-up Spotta has received £1 million of funding for what it describes as “the future of pest control”.
BusinessCloud said that investors believe Spotta has huge potential in global markets in farming, forestry, hospitality and other sectors.
Co-founders Neil D’Souza-Mathew and Robert Fryers (pictured left and right respectively) believe Spotta’s technology could help solve the £320 billion problem of insect pests while dramatically reducing pesticide use.
Spotta commercialised its first product in 2019. In addition to its Bed Pod product, which monitors bed bugs in hotels and other multi-room accommodation offerings, the company is working with a forest management organisation to develop an outdoor pest monitoring solution, and anticipates its technology being used in other applications including insect monitoring to help boost yields in agriculture.
Building from this highly launch, Spotta said it will use the new funding to continue hiring top talent, launch two new products, and enter into new international markets beyond its current presence in the UK, the US and Europe.
Spotta chief executive Robert Fryers said: “For decades, pest management has been held back by laborious, error-prone manual monitoring.
“With our technology it is finally possible to change this and help industries around the world to make a step change from reactive to proactive management of pests.”
Mr Fryers added: “We are at an exciting intersection of AI, environmental sustainability and IoT. Our scalable, platform technology enables huge increases in productivity in a range of sectors including agriculture, forestry, textiles and hospitality. We are building a substantial, highly profitable business by giving our customers better tools for dealing with invasive and costly species.”