“Support from Suss Ventures was key to put us in front of an early-stage fund that could act as lead investor,” according to E-Nano co-founder Christian Von Scheidt. “Their team has been professional all the way through the process, looking for ways to improve our communication with prospective investors and creating a network of start-ups in similar stages.”
E-Nano is initially developing modular robots for monitoring grass and turf on professional sport fields, working with sports surface company STRI.
The rovers will scout the surface using sensors, then use cloud communication and AI to predict grass growth for sports field managers. Beyond this, the company aims to do the same for agricultural land.
The investment will go towards robot development, as well as contribute to pre-launch product validation.
Suss Ventures was founded in 2019 as an investor matching service for Sussex Innovation by its head of investments Laurence Grant.
“As far as investment opportunities go, E-Nano qualifies as a fast-growing data-driven start-up with scalability in the field of sports engineering, robotics and cloud computing,” said Grant. It “also presented as a SEIS opportunity for investors – E-Nano has attracted a lot of attention from high-net worths and SEIS funds seeking to support early-stage companies, while lowering risk of investment through the seed investment scheme”.
Sussex Innovation is a business incubator for entrepreneurs, start-ups, scale-ups and corporate innovators, with offices in Brighton and Croydon, and one due in Brighton city centre.