Sofant Technologies Raises £3.1M to Miniaturise RF Antennas for the Next Generation of Connected Devices

Sofant Technologies, an Edinburgh-based deeptech company, has raised £3.1 million across three rounds from Scottish Venture Fund, EMVC, Kelvin Capital, and EV Private Equity to develop and commercialise its miniature radio frequency antenna technology. The company has developed novel antenna designs based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology that are small enough to be embedded directly into mobile devices, wearables, and IoT hardware at the point of manufacture — enabling significantly improved wireless performance without the space penalty that conventional antenna designs impose on increasingly compact consumer electronics.

The antenna has long been one of the most awkward design constraints in consumer electronics engineering. Every wireless device needs an antenna to transmit and receive radio signals, and the performance of that antenna — its gain, its ability to handle multiple frequency bands, its sensitivity — is directly tied to its physical size. As devices have become thinner, lighter, and more densely packed with other components, the space available for antennas has shrunk, creating a persistent tension between connectivity performance and form factor. This problem has become more acute with the transition to 5G, which requires devices to support a significantly wider range of frequency bands simultaneously, and with the proliferation of IoT devices that need reliable wireless connectivity in extremely small enclosures.

Sofant's MEMS-based antenna approach addresses this by using microfabrication techniques to produce antennas that are substantially smaller than conventional designs while maintaining competitive or superior performance across multiple frequency bands. MEMS fabrication enables fine-grained control over the antenna's physical structure, allowing designs that would be impractical to produce using conventional manufacturing. The antennas can be fabricated directly onto semiconductor substrates, enabling integration with other chip-level components and simplifying the manufacturing process for device makers.

The Scottish Venture Fund backing reflects Scotland's growing deeptech ecosystem, anchored by the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, which have produced strong research in MEMS, semiconductors, and photonics. Kelvin Capital is a Scottish early-stage investor with particular experience in hardware and engineering companies. The funding will be used to further develop the antenna technology, advance towards manufacturing-ready designs, and build commercial relationships with consumer electronics and IoT device manufacturers.

Sources

• Sofant Technologies — company website