PhovIR: turning mobile devices into chemical scanners

Near‑infrared spectroscopy is usually the domain of bulky lab equipment, but PhovIR is shrinking it to fit in your pocket.

The University of Manchester spinout raised £4 million in a seed round led by SCVC and co‑led by Northern Gritstone. Founders Dr Tim Echtermeyer and Dr Steve Turley – with engineering support from William Wren and Minh Vu – have integrated a Michelson interferometer onto a 4 × 4 mm chip.

Their technology captures a broad spectral range (1–2.6 µm) to generate an optical “fingerprint” of solids, liquids and gases.

The miniature sensor, powered by AI, can identify materials in under 100 milliseconds and is designed to embed into smartphones, wearables and handheld devices. Applications span healthcare diagnostics, food quality, agriculture and environmental monitoring. SCVC general partner John Williams says PhovIR represents the kind of “multi‑tech breakthrough” he looks for.

With the fresh capital, the team will launch its first commercial product, scale its engineering team and explore manufacturing partners for volume production. Northern Gritstone’s investment underscores a growing appetite for deep‑tech in the North of England.

PhovIR was incubated at the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre. The founders believe that by combining chip‑scale optics with machine‑learning, their sensor can bring lab‑grade analysis to everyday devices. Future plans include building an app ecosystem that lets developers write detection algorithms for specific use cases.

If successful, PhovIR could help farmers test soil nutrients on the fly or enable clinicians to screen diseases with a smartphone. Photo: PhovIR founders and engineering team at the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre.