K3Metrology Secures Further Funding for Next-Generation Coordinate Measurement
K3Metrology has recently secured a £2 million Innovate UK project award to accelerate the development of Metralis, its next-generation coordinate measurement platform designed to deliver fast, accurate and traceable 3D measurement for advanced manufacturing. The award marks a further milestone for the UK technology company, following its £2.75 million seed funding round announced in April 2026.
The recent project funding was awarded through Innovate UK’s Investor Partnerships programme, which combines government research and development funding with aligned private investment to support high-potential technology businesses. K3Metrology is eligible for 45% grant funding under the award, providing additional support for the next stage of Metralis development alongside the company’s existing private investment.
The combined funding is intended to accelerate the platform towards scalable commercial deployment in aerospace, defence and other high-value manufacturing sectors, where dimensional accuracy, measurement traceability and inspection throughput are critical to product quality and manufacturing efficiency.
From Research to Commercial Deployment
As reported by Metrology News in April, K3Metrology launched with a £2.75 million seed investment backed by the Development Bank of Wales, Parkwalk and the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S). The investment was intended to support product development, team expansion and the establishment of early commercial applications.
Based at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre Cymru in North Wales, K3Metrology was founded by CEO Dr Mike Campbell and CTO Professor Ben Hughes. The company’s technology builds on more than a decade of research and development at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), where the founders worked together on advanced measurement technologies.
Metralis is a laser-based coordinate measurement platform developed to address limitations associated with established measurement approaches, particularly in applications requiring the measurement of large or complex components. The system is designed to provide high-accuracy, traceable 3D coordinate data at speed, with the potential to improve inspection productivity and integrate measurement more closely with manufacturing operations.
The company has previously reported performance gains from customer trials, including a timing study with a major manufacturing partner that indicated efficiency improvements of 60%. The latest funding is intended to help translate the technology’s development and early performance results into a commercially scalable measurement solution.
Accelerating The Next Development Phase
The Innovate UK award provides an additional source of support as K3Metrology progresses from early-stage investment and technology development towards broader industrial adoption. By combining grant funding with private capital, the project is designed to help advance the technology while supporting the engineering, development and commercialisation activities required for deployment in demanding manufacturing environments.
Aerospace and defence manufacturers operate under stringent requirements for dimensional conformity, inspection documentation and measurement confidence. At the same time, increasingly complex components and production processes are placing greater demands on the speed and flexibility of inspection systems.
For these applications, the ability to acquire accurate coordinate data efficiently, and to integrate measurement into production workflows, can have implications beyond the inspection process itself. Faster measurement can support shorter production cycles, more timely identification of manufacturing variation and improved use of engineering and quality resources.
The challenge for next-generation measurement platforms is to deliver these productivity benefits without compromising accuracy, traceability or confidence in the results. Metralis is being developed to address this requirement, with the new project providing further support for the progression towards commercial use.
“This Innovate UK award is a major milestone for K3Metrology and a strong validation of our vision for Metralis. With Innovate UK’s backing alongside our investors, we can accelerate development while keeping our focus where it matters — delivering measurement our customers can trust. Metralis has the potential to transform how metrology is deployed across high-value manufacturing, and this support moves us decisively towards scalable, commercial adoption” said Dr Mike Campbell, CEO and co-founder of K3Metrology.
For the wider metrology sector, the progress of platforms such as Metralis reflects the continuing drive to improve measurement speed, accuracy and productivity while bringing dimensional inspection closer to the manufacturing process. The next stage will be translating these technical capabilities into validated, scalable solutions that meet the operational and traceability requirements of industrial users.
For more information: www.k3metrology.co.uk
