NEWCASTLE startup Corridor.AI has merged with a London firm as it seeks to expand the global reach of its infrastructure inspection smarts.
Nick Smith, Ashley Cox and Aaron Hoye's company Airsight Australia, now known as Corridor.AI, has been acquired by data management group Maestrano, listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Mr Cox said the trio had retained almost 50 per cent ownership and the merger would allow Corridor.A1 to expand - it plans to hire up to 15 developers in coming months as it pushes its hardware and software products to more export markets.
"We are getting talented students from the university who are keen to build their careers without leaving home and we are also attracting skilled people from all over the world," he said.
Corridor.AI began in 2012, when Mr Smith bought a drone for real estate photography. Realising its potential in industry and transport, he linked up with Mr Cox, now the company's chief operating officer, and Mr Hoye (chief technical officer), to diversify its offering.
"We looked at different laser scanners we could put on drones and there wasn't anything that was cheap or good enough to use, so we built our own," said Mr Cox, adding that their NextCore product is thrice more economical than rival products.
The company has secured distributors in Japan and New Zealand for NextCore, which has applications in surveying, conservation and bushfire management, and now plans to launch into other export markets.
Corridor.AI has also developed a sensor system that attaches to the front of trains to scan rail corridor assets and has been tested in Newcastle, Sydney and Tokyo.
Mr Cox said while many companies were recording such data digitally, it was still reviewed manually, whereas Corridor.AI's software automated the entire process.
"We are ahead in this technology, and the potential for it is good, it's not scary AI," he said. "It has the potential to save millions of dollars in the transport sector annually, and also reduce risk to those people who are typically assessing this data."
