About

We are a multi-award winning sensor and analytics start-up 

We are on a mission to stop flooding and bring wastewater into the 21st Century

The problem...

Flooding is increasing due to climate change, urbanisation and ageing infrastructure. The current approach of major infrastructure operators is principally reactive due to the scale of the networks and a lack of adequate sensing technology and analytics. A reactive approach is costly from numerous perspectives: environmental damage, regulatory fines, legal cases, poor publicity, damage to assets and high operational costs to name but a few.

Key UK stats...

(From the 2022-23 annual performance reports of UK water companies - see here for the compiled dataset and here for the source files)

Network 

The total size of the UK's wastewater network is over 590,000 km long. That's long enough to wrap 14 times around the globe or to go to the moon!

Blockages

There were 320,259 blockages in the UK network last year! Wet-wipes, fat, oil and grease are all to blame, bin them don't flush them. Blockages can span up to a kilometre long or weigh as much as 130 tonnes!

Flooding

In the UK this past year there were over 40,000 sewage floods (35,828 external, 5,155 internal) and 1,953 environmental pollution incidents. 

Collapses

There were 4,297 sewer collapses in the UK's wastewater network last year. Some of London's sewers date back to the 1800s with Bazalgette's first network built with 300 million bricks

Penalties

£122 million in flooding, pollution and blockage-related penalties alone were enforced by the UK water regulator OFWAT in 2022. That's enough to purchase 425 average UK homes!

Manholes

There are circa 23 million manholes in the UK wastewater network! That's one for roughly every 3 people in the UK and about the same number as there are bikes in the UK!

The solution...

We offer innovative low-cost, long-life and easy to install sensors for monitoring wastewater levels, combined with real-time and predictive alerts to allow for proactive flood management with a sale and service model. A proactive approach allows for early and efficient intervention, stopping flooding. Monitoring and analytics allows for calibrated models to be developed enabling optimised data-driven decision-making. For more information about our services please contact us via email or phone

Supporters 

Thames Water
Thames Water is the UK's largest water and wastewater utility with 15 million customers, comprising 27% of the UK's population, treating 4.7 billion litres of wastewater per day. See the letter of interest here from Thames Water's Director of Wastewater Networks, Matt Rimmer, endorsing ManholeMetrics.  

Yorkshire Water
Yorkshire Water is one of the UK's largest water and wastewater utilities with 5 million customers, treating 1 billion litres of wastewater per day with 52,315km of sewer and 650 treatment works. There are 2 million manholes in their network!

National Highways
National Highways is responsible for operating, maintaining and improving England's Strategic Road Network (SRN) comprising of 6,880km of motorways and major A roads. The SRN is the most heavily used part of the national road network and carries 1/3 of all road traffic and 2/3 of all freight traffic with approximately 116 billion vehicle miles travelled on the network every year!

Imperial College London
Imperial has been a key supporter of ManholeMetrics. With our young team of recent and current Imperial students, the team has been incredibly lucky to be able to leverage all the college has to offer to its young entrepreneurs to date and it has been pivotal. The Imperial Enterprise Lab have been an outstanding commercial resource, with ManholeMetrics taking advantage of the Experts in Residence programme from IP advice to Business Coaching and everything in-between. The Advanced Hackspace facilities and technical support from the hackspace fellows enabled rapid prototyping and design development. The college's communications team has additionally worked hard to celebrate the successes of the team! See articles here and here.

Enviromontel
We are working with in partnership with sensor installation leader Enviromontel. Enviromontel bring expertise of almost 20 years to the table and work across the water, construction, infrastructure and rail sectors. Their clients include Thames Water, Southern Water, Anglian Water and Crossrail. 

St John's Innovation Centre - Cambridge
The renowned St John's Innovation Centre, launched by St John’s College Cambridge in 1987, is a leading centre for business and innovation. They have supported ManholeMetrics with business coaching and a program of world-class commercial training covering marketing, finanace, negotiation etc. as part of the Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellowship Award. 

Ordnance Survey + Geovation
Ordnance Survey (OS) is Great Britain’s national mapping agency. It carries out the official surveying of GB, providing the most accurate and up-to-date geographic data. Geovation is a part of Ordnance Survey, and supports entrepreneurs and start-ups by providing access and helping them to effectively leverage OS data. 

Awards

Royal Academy of Engineering + ERA Foundation Enterprise Fellowship
ManholeMetrics Founder Will won an enterprise fellowship with the Royal Academy of Engineering supported by the ERA Foundation comprising of funding, a 12-month programme of mentoring in addition to business coaching and training from St John's Innovation Centre, Cambridge and a lifetime of support from the RAEng including access to the Taylor Centre, the RAEng's Central London co-working space.

Mayor's Entrepreneur Award - Tech
ManholeMetrics Founder Will won the Mayor's Entrepreneur Award 2021 in the Tech category, securing not only a generous grant from the Citibank foundation, but also the backing of Mayor of London's Office and a programme of mentoring. Will was invited back to deliver a keynote at the 2022 awards at London's City Hall and features in a case study!

Get It Made Under 30s Grant Winner
ManholeMetrics won the Get It Made Under 30s Grant, securing free manufactured parts and allowing the team to draw upon the firm's knowledgeable engineers to accelerate the design and development of our product. Get It Made is a CNC machining and manufacturing specialist providing expert services such as CNC Milling, Injection Moulding, and 3D Printing. The initiative is aimed at fostering innovative start-ups founded by under 30s. The manufacturing grant is used for creating new prototypes and scaling up production, with the aim of supporting the next generation of founders and their hardware start-ups.

UKRI Young Innovators
ManholeMetrics and Founder Will won a Young Innovator Award securing a financial support and business coaching from the UK government's innovation body, Innovate UK. It gives ManholeMetrics access to a nation-wide network of affiliated organisations to support continued business growth and product development.  

Cranfield Technology Accelerator Fund
ManholeMetrics was awarded funding and support for a 4-month project with Cranfield University, a powerhouse for wastewater research. As part of the Technology Accelerator Fund project generously supported by Green Futures Investments Limited, companies receive four months of technical and business support from Cranfield to help them accelerate their projects and bring their ideas to market. More information about the GFIL TAF programme is available here.

LNER Future Labs 4.0
ManholeMetrics was awarded a spot on the presitigious London North East Railway Future Labs 4.0 program, a 12-week accelerator to help start-ups delve into the rail sector, supported by both LNER as well as partners such as Network Rail and Alt Labs

Testimonials

Thames Water Network Engineer - James Clarkson: "This is a gamechanger for the wastewater industry"
Lanes Planning Maintenance Lead  - Keira Richards: "This has huge potential for planned maintenance - better visibility and streamlined work flows"
IETG Sensor Installation Engineer - Adrian Wilby: "It's a good bit of kit, super easy to install"