Estonian deep tech company GScan announced it has raised a €3 million seed round from investors like Bolt founder Markus Villig, Japanese corporate venture funds, and existing angel investors.  

The deep tech startup provides detailed 3D imagery of assets’ internal structure, enhancing public safety through informed infrastructure maintenance.

GScan plans to use the funding to further develop and commercialize their technology, expand their team, and explore new applications in areas such as defence, national security, healthcare, and space.

“Muon tomography is a decades-old technology. With the advent of AI and better optical solutions, we have finally managed to commercialise and make viable noninvasive detection of defects and faults in various materials, including concrete and steel,” said GScan CEO Marek Helm.

“We have also launched the SilentBorder initiative to use myon tomography in finding for example narcotics and other contraband inside shipping containers without manual inspection. The advantage of myon tomography over x-rays is also that there is no harmful radiation,” explained Helm.

The company’s technology helps to save resources

Founded by a team of CERN physicists, engineers, and entrepreneurs in 2018, GScan uses muons – naturally occurring, harmless cosmic rays – and AI analysis to assess the chemical composition and structural integrity of infrastructure, such as bridges and tunnels.

GScan is currently working on a maiden project with the UK National Highways, AtkinsRealis, and Jacobs, assessing the integrity of steel components inside a post-tensioned concrete bridge. Concrete is the most abundant and CO2-heavy building material. Repairing an old structure instead of replacing it reduces the costs and CO2 by up to 80 per cent.

For example, more than 460 tonnes of CO2 can be saved by prolonging its lifecycle instead of demolishing and rebuilding one average bridge.

In its first major commercial project the firm scanned through 10 metres of concrete and steel for details of two Soviet-era nuclear submarine reactors in Paldiski, Estonia, achieving accuracies 30 times better that of the former similar projects.

“We have already been invited to evaluate the potential of inspecting other ageing nuclear reactors in Europe,” added Helm.