Product

Picture this: it is 2050 and to reduce our carbon footprint, we have moved away from air/road to more sustainable modes of transport such as rail. However, it is hard to run an economy when the infrastructure is riddled with delays and cancellations.

Lenz Labs leverages AI to build predictive maintenance models and hardware devices to tackle sources of rail unreliability.

Seasonal Delivery Portal - Network Rail incurs an estimated £275m from delay minutes due to issues such as weather-induced track conditions. Lenz’s portal allows for better mitigation strategies using live data sources.

Traction Hub - Smart device which can be thought of as an ABS for trains, de-risking the track conditions before they become an issue.

Founders

Hamish Geddes, CEO - Previously the secretary of Hyped, an initiative to bring Hyperloop to the UK. BSc, Mathematics and Physics - University of Edinburgh

Carolina Toczycka, CCO - Previously research engineer at Costain Group. MA, Management - University of Edinburgh

Daniel Carbonell, CTO - Previously the technical director at Vennle. BEng, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering - University of Edinburgh

Spotlight Analysis

Strengths

• Enabling sustainable travel: rail emits 75% less CO2 than other transport methods, helping to alleviate climate change

• Huge market demand: railway reliability is the number one reason for choosing other methods of commuting, making it a painkiller problem for train companies

• Strong traction: initial £340k contract secured with the Department of Transport

Weaknesses

• Long sales cycle: most rail networks are maintained by government agencies so Lenz should expect a significant revenue lag

• Product risk: the smart device is yet to be tested in a live environment, where unexpected hardware issues could arise

• Significant R&D: developing IoT sensors to produce live data will have long product development cycles

Market

Cedar AI - Raised $7m Series A in 2019 from Felicus Ventures, Spider Capital and HackVC

Konux - Raised $80m Series C in 2021 from Sanno Capital, New Enterprise Associates and others

Why Lenz Labs?

With initial government contracts secured and a hungry team, Lenz Labs is best placed to work closely with their customer and build a strong product

Key Details

Year founded: 2019

Summary: Lenz Labs leverages AI to build predictive maintenance models and hardware devices to tackle sources of rail unreliability

Investors: Climate VC, Old College Capital, Scottish Enterprise, Rainmaking and Vertex Albion Partners

Raised to date: $585,000

Currently raising?: Yes, £1.3m*

*PitchBook June 2023

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