Zenzic rewards five companies with a share of £500,000

The five winners specialise in everything from data management to ceramic antenna production.

Zenzic, a company which connects regulators and innovators in the self-driving sector, has announced the five winners of its CAM Scale-Up programme. The scheme aims to give UK-based, innovative self-driving technology small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups the opportunity to test and develop their products through the Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) Testbed UK, a testing ecosystem created to aid the development of connected transport and self-driving vehicle technologies.

The Zenzic CAM Scale-Up programme is supported by the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) and delivered in partnership with Plug and Play. Zenzic says the competition will give the winning SMEs valuable time and support to validate safety and security elements of their product. According to Zinzec, the programme offers a unique opportunity to test their products in realistic environments across the various CAM Testbed UK facilities allowing them to deliver better connected and self-driving technology solutions to market faster.

Announced at Zenzic and Plug & Play’s Innovation Day, the five winning start-ups will gain access to a shared pot of £500,000 in grant funding, as well as what Zinzec is calling world-class technical and business assistance.

The first of the five winning SMEs is Angoka, which provides hardware-based solutions for managing the cybersecurity risks inherent in machine-to-machine communication networks used for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles and smart city infrastructure.

Beam Connectivity also scooped a share of the funding. The company says it helps unlock the value in the data generated by vehicle fleets through its Connected Vehicle as a Service (CVaaS) platform, which connects vehicles, cloud, IT infrastructure and mobile apps.

Another winner was Eatron Technologies –  an intelligent Software products and solutions company specialising in Electric and Autonomous vehicles.

Helix Technologies was fourth on the winners list. Helix Technologies says it is developing a range of compact, high-performance, dielectric-loaded ceramic antennas for use in a wide range of demanding telecommunications and navigation applications.

Rounding off the lucky winners was RoboK – a Cambridge-based start-up developing cost-effective 3D sensing software solutions for low-power embedded computing platforms.

Daniel Ruiz, CEO of Zenzic, was keen to congratulate all who participated: “We were incredibly impressed with the level of quality showcased by all the companies who were shortlisted, and we sincerely thank them for entering.

“The five exciting companies who are being enrolled in the Zenzic CAM Scale-Up programme deserve particular congratulations for what they have achieved so far and for the huge strides forward they are taking.

“The UK has a strong track record delivering trusted, world-class solutions across safety assurance, cyber security, simulation, and certification. All these capabilities are vital to support the safe roll out of CAM services over the next 10 years, as per the UK Connected and Automated Mobility Roadmap to 2030.

“The Zenzic CAM Scale-Up programme will enable the winning SMEs, who are already working in these sectors, to deliver their innovative products to market much faster. The opportunity to safeguard and support new UK capabilities is now all the more important as the country seeks to accelerate growth out of the sharp economic downturn.”