A Melbourne-based tech start-up that is reshaping the lighting systems of commercial buildings will seek venture capital for expansion from California's famed Silicon Valley.
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High-tech entrepreneur Organic Response invented a wireless lighting control system based on a sensor device in light fittings smaller than the size of a matchbox that reduces energy use by adjusting illumination according to when occupants are using a building.
The sensors use autonomous algorithms and communicate through infrared signal with nearby devices, switching on when they detect a human presence or change in ambient light.
"Each light fitting is provided with enough intelligence and sensors to make all its own decisions," Organic Response chief executive Chris Duffield said.
The system has been successfully fitted in 25 locations in Australia and overseas, including a building in Helsinki, a school in the Netherlands and offices in London and Manchester, Mr Duffield said.
Significant offshore interest and a local forward order list of about $2.8 million, as well as a potential customer pipeline twice that size, had prompted it to look for expansion capital.
Mr Duffield and co-founder Danny Bishop will visit the United States over coming weeks to raise $5 million to develop the business.
Organic Response was targeting the US because there was a "frenetic appetite for the 'internet of things' investment opportunities," Mr Duffield said.
"We're pretty focused on taking it global. We need extra funding to capture that opportunity," he said.
The "internet of things" (IOT) is a term for a new wave of intelligent, web-enabled devices that react to a user's behaviour and provide valuable data and savings in the process.
Organic Response has teamed up with two of Europe's largest lighting manufacturers and has a similar technical alliance with six local outfits, including Eagle Lighting, Thorn Lighting and LimeLight Australia, who integrate the sensors in their light fittings, Mr Duffield said.
The system lessens the need for expensive and complex hard-wired building control systems.
It recently won two Green Star Innovation points after being installed in an eight-level South East Water office in Frankston.
The firm was also in discussion with a Grollo family project about a trial of the technology, he said.
It claims its sensors provide a 20 to 30 per cent upfront cost saving and were up to 80 per cent cheaper for building tenants to commission and maintain.
