DeepStream Technologies

May 17 2008 by Sion Barry, Western Mail

Location: Parc Menai science and technology park near Bangor.

Turnover/profits: £502,000 turnover.

What does the company do? DeepStream Technologies is an intelligent sensing and control company. It designs, manufactures and markets digital sensors and solutions which embed intelligence, communications, and command and control capabilities directly into electrical circuits, switches, sockets and systems.

How much do you invest annually in research and development as a percentage of turnover? DeepStream Technologies is a start-up company and our current turnover is related to engineering design fees, as we are in the pre-production phase of growth. Once company overheads are met all remaining capital is directed into R&D. To date we have raised in excess of £10m from two funding rounds, the majority of which is invested in R&D.

What percentage of your workforce is involved in R&D? DeepStream employs 72 staff of which 57% are involved in R&D.The company is running a recruitment campaign to grow its engineering and product staff by 30. This will see the number of staff involved with R&D rise to more than 70% by the end of 2008.

What percentage of your net assets can be linked to historical R&D expenditure? Again due to the nature of being a start-up company our entire turnover and all money raised is invested in R&D.

Do you think the Government is doing enough to encourage more R&D activity? Although the Government does offer some funding and taxation to encourage entrepreneurship, it falls short of other European countries; Germany is a good example, and the United States another. The UK could do more by the way of subsidies and grants in order to incubate new ideas and businesses.

How many products or services do you have in development? DeepStream has a number of projects under development for leading European and American original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The majority are under strict client confidentiality. Our first products, for Moeller Automation, which were launched at the Light & Build show in Frankfurt in April, are part of four different projects based on developing the world’s first digital RCD. The projects cover a number of applications and due to the nature of the embedded software DeepStream provide, allow Moeller to configure in excess of 120 different rated products.

How many new products/services do you plan to bring to market over the next year? In addition to our first products for Moeller Automation launched in April – due for market release into Europe in autumn – DeepStream will be launching another two products, with the potential for a further 120 product variants.

How many patents do you have in operation? DeepStream has filed 10 patents since 2004.