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Interview with... Loretta King of Alert Technology
15th December 2020
Hazel Tucker and Alex Gilliam spoke with Loretta King of Alert Technology to discuss how the business was founded; how it has launched a new air quality product during the Covid pandemic and how the company has benefited from EIS and R&D Tax Credit reliefs.
Tell us a little bit more about Alert Technology and the company’s story…
Alert Technology’s story has been in development for over a decade. Our journey started 12 years ago when our MD and CEO, Alan Archer, who loves a new idea, sat the Directors down in a board meeting and said:
“Right, we need a new product. It has to be unique, solves a problem for our core customers, we need to own the IP and it should have a global market!”
To which of course we were all like, “yeah... easy! We’ll get that to you tomorrow!!”
What then followed was a period of extensive market research - looking at our existing target audience in construction sector trying to identify challenges and dangers they faced at work to find gaps in our market. We had previous experience with a range of other detectors for gas, water leaks etc but after completing research, we discovered that there was no detection device for airborne asbestos – none in the whole world. Despite its ban in the UK in 1999, we learned that 20 trades people still die here every week from asbestos-related diseases! We were shocked, surely with this many deaths in the UK and over 250,000 deaths per year across the world, someone must have been looking for a solution!?
We focused on this idea and started thinking about a real-time method for detecting airborne asbestos to protect our customers and prevent unnecessary danger and death from a common everyday substance. Recognising the gap in the market and the fact that we weren’t scientists ourselves meant we had to find a way to make this work by looking outside of existing company structure. Through an organization called PERA who were established in the post war era with the aims to bring academia and business together to drive innovation - we were introduced to the University of Hertfordshire. We discovered they had been working on this technology back in the 1990s and had found a way of using the unique paramagnetic properties of asbestos and light scattering technology to detect asbestos fibres in the air in real time. At the time, like a lot of research, the idea had not been progressed as it was not commercially viable to produce.
With a decade past and the remarkable progression of technology and drop in the cost of electrical components, lasers and computing, we knew the historic problem of commercial viability could be overcome so we made the decision to invest into research, using funding raised via an EU FP7 grant. We brought market development experience and existing routes to market to the consortium and together with the University and a number of academic and trade associations we committed to a 3-year research and development product to make a portable and affordable working prototype – which we did!
To commercialize the product, we knew we needed to attract equity investment so we restructured the group and spun Alert Technology Ltd out of The Select Group of Companies in January 2017 on successful raising of £1M in private investment. Led with a £500k investment from a cornerstone investor (NCL Technology Ventures) we topped the round up through an online equity platform called Syndicate Room who specialise in investments from knowledgeable individuals who are interested in science and medical technologies, along with investment ourselves and from our friends and family.
The story of Alert so far has been one of sheer determination. If you have a good idea, you know there is market opportunity then you look at every possible option and fight like hell to make it happen. When you are undertaking R&D and trying to develop a world first product there are countless hurdles to jump. It is exhausting but when you believe in what you are trying to achieve, you keep just keep going.
The story of Alert so far has been one of sheer determination. If you have a good idea, you know there is market opportunity then you look at every possible option and fight like hell to make it happen.
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You mentioned that you’ve sought private investment and I know you’ve used the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS). How has this assisted the business?
EIS has helped massively and particularly with the online equity funding and through angel investor groups. Alert is not eligible for traditional finance because we are not yet revenue generating, but investors are incentivised through the government to step in when the banks can’t take the risk to invest money in companies like us who are pre-revenue and developing new tech. The majority of our private and angel investors have been able to benefit from EIS which is great because it makes us more appealing to them.
And you have managed to access R&D tax credit scheme, how has that helped with cash-flow?
It has been a god send on a number of occasions! It amazes me the number of businesses that don’t do it, why wouldn’t you? It is there for you! I think the reason for people not getting involved is probably due to understanding the definition of what research and development means, it doesn’t have to just be science (although in our respect it is!) and I think that’s why people miss out.
How has business had to adapt since COVID-19 and challenges in the last 12 months?
The day-to-day running of Alert hasn’t changed, our engineering team has carried on working throughout. We can continue to work safely; we have labs and offices so everyone has space to socially distance and utilise things like Microsoft Teams for subcontractor meetings.
The impact it has had on us, is that we are getting to a stage with the product where we have a number of distributors in place, a number of purchase orders and we were ready to do trials, but a lot of these had to be paused. They still want the product, but they can’t use it right now, which was understandable.
Our software subcontractors have also been heavily effected, and we have lost key contacts due to redundancies. It has been a challenge. We were also at the final stages of our second investment round when COVID hit which effectively put a pause both nationally and internationally as investors withdrew during such high levels of global economic uncertainty. Luckily, Innovate UK, who we have received funding from previously, have been very helpful and released a special continuity grant.
The R&D Tax Credit Scheme has been a god send on a number of occasions! It amazes me the number of businesses that don’t do it, why wouldn’t you?
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Have there been any opportunities which Covid-19 has presented?
Well, in true Alan Archer style he found a new opportunity and a new product which could be lifesaver! The product that had been developed in Germany with a company we have been associated with for nearly 10 years who met via their interest in distribution of the ALERT. They provide decontamination equipment for the asbestos industry and because of COVID-19, much of their work had been postponed or cancelled. So, they looked at their existing technology and identified that they could turn that into a high qualify professional air purifier.
The UK PureAir R150 works by effectively circulating and sanitizing the air in a room by filtering and killing airborne viruses, bacteria and other contaminants. It has now been widely accepted that COVID-19 is predominately transferred through the air rather than on surfaces and keeping the doors and windows open in the winter is not practical particularly in in schools, care homes and hospitals. Pure air provides an easy way to bring ventilation and filtration into your building. It is a plug and play device – robust in design, on wheels for easy transportation, designed for commercial applications and offering a very high flow rate completely changing the air up to 7 times in a room 150m3.
COVID-19 has finally highlighted the risk we all face because of poor indoor air quality. The PureAir has UVC-light which actively kills airborne viruses through UVC disinfection - a proven technology used in the medical and transportation industries for years. UVC light is dangerous, if humans are directly exposed to it, but safely contained within our equipment, only the air drawn through the device is exposed to airborne viruses’ and bacteria, kills the RNA and DNA within the virus that stops it reproducing.
We have a unit that is currently taking part in a government funded NHS study at a leading hospital and University in the South West which is proving in early results to be very successful in reducing background aerosols in COVID wards. We are also looking at some care homes who are taking part in a government pilot on how to get families back into care homes to visit their loved ones.
We are also talking to the wider professional community including the retail and hospitality sector and large businesses all of whom are looking at ways to encourage their staff to return to the office, and to reassure staff and customers that the risk is minimized at their premises giving them a competitive edge. If you were to go to your gym or coffee shop, how much more comfortable would you feel if, along with all the necessary restrictions, there was an air purifier filtering and sanitizing sufficient air flow to help reduce transmission rates effectively?
We are really excited about the PureAir as 90% of our time in the UK is spent indoors the wider issue of indoor air quality fits nicely into our product offering of “safe air”. It is our belief that no one should be unknowingly exposed to unsafe air when there is technology available to avoid this.
Such a fascinating product and the very best of luck with it. Finally, what does future hold for alert?
Countless opportunities and possibilities and no doubt countless changes!
That’s really satisfying for us to know we are bringing products to market that are going to help people, save lives and commercially for us it’s nice to know there is a market and demand that is not just in our back garden but global.
The future holds big and bright things but it requires the support of people who are excited and willing to get behind new technology and the rollercoaster it can be, so we are always interested in talking to people who want to support new technology and innovations and we are actively looking for new investment to ensure the fast commercialization of all our products.
Contact: Loretta King, COO of Alert Technology Ltd at: loretta@asbestos-alert.com
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