Eave raises £2m to raise hearing protection standard for construction workers
Eave, a UK-based tech start-up which has developed a unique hearing protection system for construction workers, has secured a £2m investment from Pembroke VCT.
Eave is already supplying many of the biggest construction companies in the UK—including Galliford Try Highways, Costain-Skanska Joint Venture, Ferrovial, VolkerLaser, Skanska-Costain-Strabag, and BAM Nuttall—and plans to use Pembroke’s investment to accelerate its growth and international expansion through 2021.
Eave’s unique hearing protection system comprises its FocusLite smart ear defenders and Peak, a cloud-based risk monitoring and prevention platform. Eave customers equip their workforces with FocusLite headsets, which gather real-time data on construction site noise as well as the wearer’s exposure rate, and feed it through to Peak, where the data is analysed by health and safety professionals and work-site managers, who use it to manage or eliminate noise-related risks.
Unlike traditional hearing protection solutions like earplugs and passive ear defenders, Eave’s FocusLite headsets contain unrivalled hear-through technology—which means wearers retain full situational awareness and the ability to communicate—whilst being protected from harmful sources of noise. And unlike other ear defenders with active hearing protection, Eave’s FocusLite headsets are part of a powerful 360° system – they are closely integrated with Peak, allowing managers to do things like monitor hearing protection wear rates and take meaningful actions where headsets aren’t correctly fitted or being worn at all.
Eave was founded by clinical and research audiologist, Dr David Greenberg, in 2015, and received early-stage funding from FORWARD.one and private investors.
Eave’s long-term mission is to eliminate the isolation and loneliness caused by hearing loss, and the scourge of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) in the construction industry made it a natural starting point for the business.
Under Greenberg’s leadership Eave is an extremely mission-driven company – it has made significant investments in educating construction professionals on the dangers of harmful noise exposure, and in convincing industry leaders to raise noise protection standards across all their projects. As a result, Costain-Skanska Joint Venture and Galliford Try Highways have already mandated active hearing protection with integrated noise monitoring on all of their sites, with other industry giants set to follow their lead in 2021.
Dr David Greenberg, Founder and CEO of Eave, commented: “Noise-induced hearing loss is a huge problem – it’s the number one occupational disease in Europe and accounts for about a third of all work-related disease. It’s also extremely prevalent amongst construction workers.
“Our partnership with Pembroke VCT is incredibly exciting – because it will allow us to double down on our strategy of getting construction businesses to mandate active hearing protection with integrated noise monitoring across all their sites – and get us that bit closer to achieving our long-term goal of totally eliminating the loneliness and isolation caused by hearing loss.”
