INNOVATIVE new technology firms are among the record number of companies formed by the University of Edinburgh over the past 12 months.
Last year the institution supported the formation of 44 start-ups and three spin-outs, with investment also reaching a record high of £237 million in 2014/15.
Over the past five years 184 companies have been created by the university, adding to the more than 400 established since the its first recorded spin-out more than 40 years ago.
Among the high-tech success stories is pureLiFi, a company specialising in visible light communications, and whose light-enabled internet technology has been incorporated at the home of the Golden State Warriors basketball team in San Francisco.
Known as Li-Fi (light fidelity), the technology aims to solve the continuing struggle for shrinking wireless bandwidth by turning lights into internet access points.
It uses LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) to deliver mobile communications in a similar fashion to Wi-Fi and although the two are complementary,
Li-Fi has a number of advantages. These include very high data transfer rates and an ample, free-to-use and unlicensed light spectrum. The technology also uses fewer components than radio technology, data transmission requires negligible additional power than already efficient LEDs and it can even work underwater.
The company says life on Earth has developed through exposure to light and the there are no known health or safety concerns with the technology.
The company’s co-founder, Professor Harald Haas, first demonstrated the technology at a live TED Global presentation in 2011. The following year pureLiFi was established as an Edinburgh University spin-out.
Haas, who is also chair of Mobile Communications at the university, has said the technology could even use street lighting to eliminate the need for increasing numbers of radio masts to service the mobile technology market.
He told The Skinny magazine: “The benefits are plentiful. It’s forecast that there will be half a billion LED light sources sold this year.
“Imagine that every LED light bulb around us is essentially a high-speed transmitter. That’s basically transforming our lives with regard to connecting ‘everything to everything’.
“It’s secure, as light doesn’t penetrate through walls – no-one can easily intercept your connection.”
Earlier this year his firm raised £1.5m from angel investors, bringing its total value to £14m.
The new investors are led by London & Scottish Investment Partners, whose chairman Scott Carnegie said it appealed to the group’s goals of “helping to accelerate growth and speed of development of a leading Scottish technology company”.
Edinburgh University’s venture investment arm, Old College Capital, and the Scottish Investment Bank also provided investment.
The university said the firms formed over the past five years employed a total of 343 people.
Grant Wheeler, head of company formation at Edinburgh Research and Innovation, said: “Edinburgh is now emerging as the largest technology hub outside London, and at the heart of that phenomenon is the university and its enterprise scene.”
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