Belfast-based Capaltec raises £125,000 investment

A team of Belfast entrepreneurs who have invented a pioneering family of laser measurement devices, have secured a £125,000 (€163,500) investment boost.

It is the latest successful funding exercise for Capaltec who have attracted a total £275,000 of new finance in just 10 months - with £200,000 of this directly invested through Halo, the Northern Ireland business angel network.

The company plans to launch ‘HeightLight’, what it describes as the world’s first handheld laser height measuring device, this summer.

Tristan Brittain-Dissont, chief executive of Capaltec said many people think that laser tape measures can be used to measure height but that is not strictly the case.

Mr Brittain-Dissont said: “Try to use a laser tape device to measure your height: you will soon realise that it is impossible. If the device is on top of your head pointing down, the beam can’t penetrate your body.

“That’s why we invented HeightLight.

“We developed a way to direct the laser beam from the top of the object being measured to the floor at an angle. This gives you the hypotenuse of right-angled triangle. Once you have measured this, our software is able to apply simple trigonometry to work out the height of the object.”

According to Alan Watts, director of Halo, based at the Northern Ireland Science Park, Capaltec’s success lies in the fact that it is a start up which has taken an everyday object like a tape measure and taken it into the 21st century.

“It’s a simple idea but our angels were impressed with the potential of the product; you only have to look at industries such as veterinary medicine, farming, consumer health, DIY and construction to see how this innovation would benefit them.”