StirLight Raises £1.25M To Scale Real-Time Welding Quality Technology

The company combines its expertise in friction stir welding (FSW) with StirSense, a proprietary real-time monitoring and quality assurance platform.

StirLight works with R&D engineers and production teams across sectors including nuclear, aerospace, defence, automotive, and energy, offering both consulting and contract manufacturing services.

FSW enables stronger, lighter and more consistent joints compared to traditional welding methods, while eliminating the need for filler materials, shielding gas and reducing energy consumption. However, wider adoption has been limited by the inability to verify weld quality during production, forcing manufacturers to rely on costly post-weld inspections.

StirLight addresses this challenge with StirSense, which captures and analyses process data in real time to detect anomalies and provide traceable quality records for every weld.

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The company was founded by Dr Jeroen De Backer (CTO), Dan Lord CEng (COO), and Toby Savage-Yu (CEO). The funding includes over £750,000 in pre-seed investment from Haatch Ventures, the British Business Bank, D2N2, and angel investors, alongside around £500,000 in grant funding from Innovate UK and the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI).

Since launching in March 2024, StirLight has been generating revenue through FSW services and contract manufacturing.

The new funding will support pilot deployments of StirSense, expand engineering and data science teams and further develop its core platform, while the company seeks partnerships with manufacturers looking to integrate real-time quality assurance into their welding operations.

“We are delighted by the support from Innovate UK, ATI, and our pre-seed investors who moved quickly to back this critical technology.

We have been building this company over the last two years and the team’s work to get us here has been exceptional. The team is looking forward to putting this funding to work and showing what UK manufacturing innovation can deliver.”

About StirLight

Founded in 2021 StirLight provides friction stir welding solutions using advanced machinery and deep technical expertise. The company helps manufacturers transition from research to large-scale production, making advanced manufacturing processes more accessible while improving efficiency, quality and scalability across industries such as aerospace, automotive, and energy.