A Greenville startup says it’s getting ready to start selling its high-tech product to the carpet industry.
Sencorables LLC was founded a year and a half ago to make a paper-thin material that can sense the number and location of people in a room and communicate the information wirelessly, said Robert Fields, chief operating officer of the four-employee venture.
The material can be affixed to carpet or mats, where it can help hoteliers keep track of the locations of their guests and thus heat and cool their properties more efficiently, Fields said.
He said major carpet and mat makers are testing the material now, and Sencorables expects to begin selling its product for the first time in less than 60 days.
Sencorables is having its product made in Dalton, Ga., a center for carpet production, under contract with a company called Fabric Systems International, Fields said.
Willem Biesheuvel, Sencorables CEO, said in a news release from the state Commerce Department that the company’s “unique way of sensing enables us to use the floor, the most natural and central data source, as a competitive sensor for the first time, at a very attractive price point. The data generated is more accurate and comprehensive than other sources and can replace many sensors currently in use.”
Biesheuvel said the technology can be used in various other industries, including the healthcare, bedding or automotive industries, and Sencorables plans to develop additional products.
Fields said Sencorables plans to hire about 25 engineers and software developers over the next three years and will spend at least $3.5 million for new equipment at its research and development facility along Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Greenville.
He said Sencorables is based on technology invented by Andrew Clark, who got a doctorate in bioengineering from Clemson University before founding SensorTech, a different Greenville startup that went out of business.
Fields said Sencorables has been funded by Biesheuvel, a Netherlands native who owned a construction company in Dubai before selling it and moving to Greenville with his family in October.
“A lot of the stuff we’ll be doing in the future will be with the Internet of Things,” Fields said, using a term that refers to inanimate objects equipped with sensors collecting data from their environment and using WiFi to transmit it between themselves and to people.
