Innovire receives 2.6 million dollars for its Avian fire protection system

(CONNECT) Innovire AG has raised 2.6 million dollars in a pre-seed financing round. The round was led by the Zurich-based venture capital firm Founderful, which focuses on early-stage financing. According to a statement from the start-up, which was founded in 2023 and is based at the Switzerland Innovation Park Zurich in Dübendorf, the fresh capital will be used for the further market expansion of Avian, its artificial intelligence (AI)-based camera system for early fire detection.

Avian detects abnormal heat development in production facilities at risk of fire and thus helps to prevent fires. As Innovire emphasizes, Avian is "not just a camera feed with simple alarm rules. The system was developed by engineers with in-depth experience in computer vision, machine learning, robotics, thermal imaging and industrial systems."

The globally distributed business magazine "Forbes" from the USA presents Innovire and its innovative fire protection system to its readership in an article from May 20. In it, the author describes the decisive impulses of the company Schilliger Holz from Küssnacht SZ in the development of Avian. In 2017, a fire at their Haltikon sawmill caused devastating damage. Managing Director Ernest Schilliger was looking for a system that would warn him earlier and contacted the current Innovire CTO Drew Hanover, who was working on his doctorate on the role of thermal imaging technology in fire prevention at the time. According to Innovire's origin story, it was about a situation "that every sawmill operator knows: flammable material, hot machines, dust, blind spots and the knowledge that an overlooked hotspot can turn into a major fire". The first system was installed and further developed at Schilliger, which later became Avian's first customer.

"Within a year of its founding, the Avian team was already supporting dozens of production facilities in the US and Europe, preventing fires on a daily basis," Founderful partner Alex Stöckl is quoted in the article. "Thanks to their thermal imaging technology, they enable an immediate return on investment and create a new level of industrial intelligence that offers customers further use cases and added value over time." The system is now reportedly in use at 50 locations in nine countries. ce/mm