Basingstoke ObserverBASINGSTOKE based hyperTunnel, the British underground construction innovator, has received a financial investment from VINCI, a global leader in concessions, energy and construction businesses.
The funds will be used for business expansion and to further develop and test hyperTunnel’s revolutionary construction method in practical situations.
The deal further strengthens hyperTunnel’s connections with VINCI Construction technical departments. hyperTunnel recently joined VINCI’s innovation platform Leonard as a member of its start-up accelerator programme, Catalyst. hyperTunnel also won the prestigious annual Construction Start-up Competition in Miami last year, which Leonard co-organises with other sector heavyweights such as Ferrovial and Cemex Ventures.
Guillaume Bazouin, Head of Start-up and Intrapreneurs programs at Leonard shared: “hyperTunnel’s technology can be truly game-changing when it comes to improving the safety and sustainability of underground construction projects. It strongly aligns with our goals of rapidly responding to the climate emergency by enabling technological advances that have a substantial environmental impact. hyperTunnel also boasts exceptional leadership and engineering teams, and we are looking to support their great success in the near future.”
hyperTunnel co-founder Jeremy Hammond added: “VINCI and Leonard are real experts when it comes to construction innovation, so to get their backing in such a concrete and substantial way means we must be doing something right. They can see the huge potential of the technologies we’re developing, and they share our passion for improving how the world works. We’re excited to see what we can achieve together over the coming months.”
Earlier this month the European Innovation Council (EIC), Europe’s flagship innovation programme to identify, develop and scale up breakthrough technologies and game-changing innovations, selected hyperTunnel to receive funding of 1.88 million Euros under its EIC Accelerator scheme. The funding will be used to complete the development of hyperTunnel’s advanced swarm robotics underground construction platform.
hyperTunnel is a deep tech scale-up that is developing a revolutionary methodology for tunnels and underground schemes, designed to be substantially faster, safer, more economical and more environmentally friendly than current techniques. hyperTunnel’s goal is to dramatically reduce the cost of tunnels, allowing global demand for increased, yet more sustainable transportation solutions, to be met.
Rather than digging through the ground with a tunnel boring machine or using a traditional drill-and-blast technique, the hyperTunnel method uses a simple horizontal directional drilling (HDD) rig to install a network of HDPE pipes to provide access to the whole tunnel length so that a swarm of multi-function robots can 3D print the tunnel.
Founded in 2018 by businessmen Steve Jordan and Jeremy Hammond, hyperTunnel employs 40 people located at its Basingstoke (UK) headquarters, and outdoor learning environment (the hOLE) and Geolab in the North Hampshire Downs.
