StirLight, a UK-based advanced manufacturing startup, has raised £1.25 million to accelerate the commercial rollout of its real-time welding quality technology and support adoption among large industrial OEMs.
The funding includes more than £750,000 in pre-seed investment from Haatch Ventures, British Business Bank, D2N2, and angel investors, alongside approximately £500,000 in grant funding from Innovate UK and the Aerospace Technology Institute.
Unlocking Scalable Advanced Manufacturing
StirLight combines expertise in Friction Stir Welding (FSW) with its proprietary monitoring platform StirSense, designed to bring real-time quality assurance into industrial welding processes.
The company works with engineering and production teams across industries including aerospace, defence, automotive, nuclear, and energy, offering both consulting and contract manufacturing services.
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Solving A Critical Industry Bottleneck
Friction stir welding enables stronger, lighter, and more consistent joints compared to conventional welding techniques, while reducing energy use and eliminating the need for filler materials and shielding gas.
However, adoption at scale has been limited by the lack of in-process quality verification, forcing manufacturers to rely on expensive and time-consuming post-weld inspections.
StirLight addresses this gap with StirSense, a platform that captures and analyses process data in real time to detect anomalies and generate traceable quality records for every weld.
From Research To Industrial Deployment
Founded by Jeroen De Backer, Dan Lord, and Toby Savage-Yu, the company has been building its technology over the past two years.
Since its commercial launch in March 2024, StirLight has already begun generating revenue through friction stir welding services and contract manufacturing.
Scaling Technology And Partnerships
The newly secured capital will be used to roll out pilot deployments of StirSense, expand engineering and data science teams, and further develop the platform.
At the same time, StirLight is seeking partnerships with manufacturers looking to integrate real-time quality assurance into their production environments.
About StirLight
Founded in 2021, StirLight develops friction stir welding solutions powered by advanced machinery and real-time data intelligence. The company enables manufacturers to move from R&D to large-scale production, improving efficiency, quality, and scalability across industries such as aerospace, automotive, and energy.
