Colmore Tang is to partner with a fledgling business that specialises in wearable safety tech, after the contractor ran a £10m programme in partnership with Virgin StartUp to find construction’s most promising innovative companies.
Wearable Link beat strong competition to win the chance to work with Colmore Tang Construction through its accelerator programme ConstrucTech.
Its devices monitor the location, activity and status of workers on site.
It examines employees’ vitals signs, detects hazardous conditions in the construction environment and automatically notifies workers of unsafe working zones whilst providing clear evacuation instructions.
CTC will be sampling Wearable Link’s technology on one of its live construction sites with 500 operatives.
Andy Robinson, CEO of Colmore Tang Group, said: “Working with this innovative start-up business is the next stage of the ConstrucTech process and we’re really looking forward to seeing how their technology can help to resolve health and safety issues that are addressed every day by construction companies all over the world.”
“The purpose of ConstrucTech was to positively disrupt the sector and pave the way for a technology-driven future in construction. We will be working very closely our chosen finalist to test, re-test and refine the product to make it the very best it can be.”
ConstrucTech attracted 210 applicants – some of which were from as far as Australia and the USA – and included concepts involving Artificial Intelligence, 3D print robotic solutions and cloud-based software.
The competition was born out of frustration within the sector, which is slow to embrace innovation and adopt new technology. More than one-third of construction projects in the UK overrun on time (40%) or budget (35%).
CTC has identified a number of key areas within its business – and the industry as a whole – which it believes could benefit from the contribution of enterprising startups and their technologies.
