Zero Point Motion emerges from stealth
Bristol-based sensor technology startup, Zero Point Motion has successfully closed a £4million pre-Series A funding round to transform positioning and navigation.
They are backed by investors SCVC (the official funding arm of Science Creates), Foresight Group and Verve Ventures, with seed round investor u-blox AG remaining a key strategic partner and customer.
This investment fuels the company’s rapid scale-up and team expansion as the company emerges from stealth mode, where they have been working on a scalable, volume-manufacturable process for Zero Point Motion’s next-generation positioning and navigation sensors.
At the core of this innovation is a radical fusion of silicon photonics and micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), inspired by Nobel Prize-winning gravitational wave detection principles. This cutting-edge approach enables low-cost, ultra-low noise, miniaturised accelerometers and gyroscopes that are 100x more sensitive than conventional MEMS sensors - delivering unprecedented performance and, crucially, resilience in environments where there is no GPS.
Zero Point Motion’s breakthrough in motion sensing is set to transform defence, space exploration, and autonomous systems where precision and reliability are mission-critical. As navigation threats intensify, this technology would enable military operations to function accurately in contested environments – while in space exploration, where every mission is a high-value asset, inertial sensors are crucial for positioning and landing spacecraft.
Closer to home, Zero Point Motion’s sensors unlock new levels of autonomy in off-highway vehicles, drones, agritech and industrial applications, allowing seamless operation in tunnels, underground networks and other remote locations.
“Our mission is to harness light to redefine the future of sensing,” says Dr Lia Li, founder and CEO of Zero Point Motion (pictured). “We’re working with two of the world’s leading foundries to push MEMS performance beyond its limits. With top-tier investors and partners behind us, we’re laser-focused on delivering our inertial sensors to customers who demand the highest precision and reliability.
“We’ve also brought more integration and packaging R&D in-house, cutting iteration times from eight weeks to just one day. This agility, combined with our expanding patent portfolio and multiple newly granted patents—ensures we stay ahead of the curve. Our next milestone: product qualification and customer deployment.”
u-blox AG cofounder and executive director, Andreas Thiel adds: “While satellite positioning technology delivers the highest accuracies in open environments, sensor-based dead reckoning is crucial for resilient performance in dense and obstructed urban scenarios. u-blox is known for its advanced positioning and wireless communication technologies, and we see significant potential in Zero Point Motion’s innovative sensor technology. By investing in Zero Point Motion, u-blox can integrate these cutting-edge sensors into our own product offerings, further strengthening our market position and expanding our technological capabilities."
Recognized as one of Sifted’s ‘16 Bristol-based Startups to Watch’, Zero Point Motion has also secured major government and EU funding, including £1.3M from the UK’s Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) in 2023, followed by a €2.4M grant from the European Innovation Council Accelerator program.
Chris Wiles, director, Foresight’s Ventures team, says: “Foresight initially invested in Zero Point Motion in 2021 to help Lia and the founding team bring this breakthrough sensing technology into the public domain. We are encouraged by the progress the team has made and the growing market need for accurate navigation and positioning in challenging environments. We are delighted to support the business in this recent funding round and welcome SCVC onboard.”
Harry Destecroix MBE, founder of Science Creates, and cofounder/ managing partner of SCVC, says: “We’re thrilled to back Zero Point Motion as they develop a truly category-defining technology. By applying cutting-edge quantum approaches to motion sensing, Lia and the team are unlocking massive potential for industries like autonomous vehicles, robotics, and consumer electronics.
“Lia is an exceptional founder—her technical brilliance, vision, and leadership make her exactly the kind of entrepreneur we love to support. This is also a great fit for our partner John Williams, who led the deal and will be working closely with the company. With his experience building Kudan, he knows first-hand the challenges in this space and how transformative Zero Point Motion’s technology could be. We can’t wait to see what they achieve.”
With this funding and industry validation, Zero Point Motion is now scaling to set a new global standard in precision motion sensing—delivering breakthrough performance and accelerating autonomy in a GPS-challenged world.
