Estonian deep tech company GScan closes a €500K investment round to improve safety and efficiency in security and cargo scanning

Ellex in Estonia advised GScan, a deep tech company that develops cosmic ray 3D scanners for security and cargo scanning, on a €500,000 investment round.

The investment round led by Indrek Kasela, one of the most active angel investors in Estonia. Among other investors are Pipedrive co-founder Martin Tajur and Bolt’s first investor Toomas Bergmann.

Martin Tajur commented: “GScan is about creating the future. In the areas where we can do without harmful X-rays, we should do it. The team has created a new technology and identified an interest in a new product. By combining the two, a cleaner world can be achieved, literally.”

Today, the market for security and cargo scanning is estimated to be $15 billion. US Homeland Security tests have shown only a 5% efficiency to find concealed weapons and explosives at airport security. The most widely used technology for scanning vehicles, ranging from vans and trucks to railcars, is gamma-ray and X-ray radiography based on radioactive sources – both with notable shortcomings in their ability to detect materials and guarantee safety.

While X-ray scanners are dangerous and unable to detect material types, scanning technology that is based on the naturally appearing cosmic rays has shown a 90% efficiency in detecting hazardous materials. GScan applies the natural flux of particles originating from the upper atmosphere to scanning technology to reduce risks to human health and significantly increase detection efficiency.

The developed hardware works with small parcel scanners to large truck and sea container scanners alike, making the product scalable beyond security and cargo scanning and applicable to many other industries in the future, such as construction and medicine. The new scanner technology can be used in public settings and works through any shielding; its AI-driven decision-making allows for fully automated inspection.

Andi Hektor, co-founder of GScan, commented: “The global increase in terrorist attacks has led to a focus on creating safer environments. Our scanners offer a safe and automated solution to upgrading security against all sorts of weapons and illegal transport of goods and people. With the new sensor technology, we can use AI to ‘see’ into people, vehicles, and freight containers to find dangerous materials or hidden occupants. We can even inspect buildings and bridges to make sure their structure is safe and durable.”

As public safety has become a global priority, the European Commission signed an agreement with the University of Tartu, GScan, and several partners earlier this year to support a joint international project SilentBorder with €7.5 million. The project will run through 2025 and build a scanner based on natural radiation for sea containers and trucks.

Ellex team who advised GScan on the funding round included Antti Perli, Merlin-Liis Toomela and Mari Must.

GScan is a deep tech startup that aims to bring a new type of 3D scanner and tomograph to the market that uses only natural radiation to scan. GScan international team combines top-level skills on security business, AI, tomographic algorithms, detector tech and holds patented algorithms for object detection and material identification.