BMH invests in sensor technology DeepTech startup HCP Sense

Darmstadt/ Wies­ba­den — HCP Sense GmbH, a deep-tech start-up from Darm­stadt, has successfully comple­ted a seven-figure seed finan­cing round. The lead inves­tor is BMH Betei­­li­­gungs-Mana­ge­­men­t­­ge­­sel­l­­schaft Hessen mbH via its Hessen Kapi­tal I fund. The round was supple­men­ted by seve­ral renow­ned busi­ness angels. The funds will be used to further deve­lop the sensor solu­tion for rolling bearings and scale it up to an indus­tri­ally appli­ca­ble series product. 

Foun­ded in 2021, the company is a spin-off of the Tech­ni­cal Univer­sity of Darm­stadt and is deve­lo­ping a new gene­ra­tion of high-tech sensors based on a multi-paten­­ted tech­no­logy for moni­to­ring the lubri­ca­tion of rolling bearings — a criti­cal but previously barely trans­pa­rent area of indus­trial plant engi­nee­ring. The sensor from HCP Sense is inte­gra­ted directly into the machi­nes, works inde­pendently of the design, lubri­cant or bearing size and enables precise, conti­nuous analy­sis of the lubri­ca­tion status using edge compu­ting and AI-supported cloud evaluation. 

HCP Sense aims to initiate a para­digm shift in bearing moni­to­ring: away from clas­sic vibra­tion analy­ses, which only detect damage that has alre­ady occur­red, and towards moni­to­ring the causes, such as lubri­ca­tion condi­ti­ons, in order to proac­tively prevent fail­ures, i.e. predic­tive main­ten­ance. The company is thus addres­sing a massive effi­ci­ency poten­tial in a market worth billi­ons: around 80% of all prema­ture bearing fail­ures are due to inade­quate lubri­ca­tion. HCP Sense intends to use the fresh capi­tal to further deve­lop its exis­ting indi­vi­dual custo­mer solu­ti­ons into an indus­tri­ally scalable product. HCP Sense’s custo­mer base has grown conti­nuously in recent years and now includes both DAX-listed corpo­ra­ti­ons and nume­rous medium-sized companies. 

Dr. Tobias Schirra, co-foun­­der and CEO of HCP Sense, says: “This finan­cing gives us the decisive impe­tus to bring our sensor tech­no­logy to series matu­rity and revo­lu­tio­nize predic­tive main­ten­ance in the rolling bearing market. With BMH, we have gained a strong part­ner that not only provi­des capi­tal, but also valuable exper­tise for our next deve­lo­p­ment phase.”

Chris­toph Wolf from BMH (photo © BMH) adds: “We were parti­cu­larly impres­sed by the excel­lent foun­ding team, which draws on in-depth rese­arch expe­ri­ence and has deve­lo­ped its tech­no­logy in close colla­bo­ra­tion with indus­try from the outset. With its solu­tion, HCP Sense also has its finger on the pulse of the times — predic­tive main­ten­ance for rolling bearings has the poten­tial to funda­men­tally change produc­tion proces­ses, mini­mize down­time and signi­fi­cantly increase the effi­ci­ency of entire plants.”

About BMH

BMH Betei­­li­­gungs-Mana­ge­­men­t­­ge­­sel­l­­schaft Hessen mbH, based in Wies­ba­den, was foun­ded in 2001 and is a wholly owned subsi­diary of Landes­bank Hessen-Thürin­­gen Giro­zen­trale (Helaba). Through Wirt­­schafts- und Infra­struk­tur­bank Hessen (WIBank), BMH is actively invol­ved in the econo­mic deve­lo­p­ment acti­vi­ties of the State of Hesse. As a medium-sized invest­ment and venture capi­tal company, BMH bund­les public invest­ment inte­rests and finan­cing instru­ments for early-stage, growth and medium-sized compa­nies in Hesse. BMH curr­ently mana­ges six invest­ment funds with a volume of over 200 million euros. Since its foun­da­tion, BMH has inves­ted in more than 500 compa­nies. Invest­ment focu­ses include the sectors software/analytics; fintech/insuretech; life science; deep tech; IoT/industrial tech; hardware/industrial goods; cleantech.
www.bmh-hessen.de