ImpulseRadar has experienced tremendous growth since they started in 2016. The company from Malå, Sweden, has gone from 3 to 27 employees in five years, and in October 2021 they received the Dagens Industri award as “Gazelle” of the Year in Västerbotten County.
“It’s gone far beyond expectations and it looks set to continue for several years to come”, says Kenneth Jakobsson, co-founder of ImpulseRadar.
There are often cables, water pipes or foundations under our roads that contractors must consider and ImpulseRadar’s ground radar equipment maps the buried infrastructure by sending impulses of radio waves into the ground.
Raptor, the company’s flagship, has taken the market by storm and is one reason for their success. The product has several antennas to give the user a 3D image of the buried infrastructure. Raptor attaches to a vehicle and can then be used at speeds up to 130 km/h.
“When we introduced the Raptor, it could be used at speeds five times faster than the competitions’ corresponding products and still provide equally good images, sometimes even better. Being able to follow the traffic rhythm on everything from small roads to motorways is a great advantage. This way, customers don’t have to block off roads”, Kenneth explains.
Virtually all ImpulseRadar’s sales are exported. It is manufactured in Malå and the company currently also has offices in Umeå, Sweden, as well as in Charleston, USA, and in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
“We are getting increasingly more customers in Europe and have started strongly in Asia. We established ourselves in the USA in 2019 and that market is the fastest growing right now. A big reason for the success is that we know the industry and have a strong breadth of experience in everything from sales and development to production and technical support”, says Kenneth.
ImpulseRadar’s turnover was almost SEK 50 million in 2020, which represents growth of as much as 658 per cent between 2017 and 2020. This fantastic journey has now led to the company being honoured the “Gazelle” statuette 2021, which means that they are the fastest growing company in all of Västerbotten.
“It feels great but we’re not revelling in it and are working to take home the prize next year as well”, says Kenneth.
Optronic has been supplying the circuit boards for ImpulseRadar’s high-tech products since the start in 2016.
“We work only with the latest technology and Optronic always delivers products with high quality and on time. They are large, professional, and a safe choice as supplier”, says Kenneth.
Robert Jonsson, Key Account Manager at Optronic, is pleased with ImpulseRadar’s success.
“Their development has rocketed, which is great. It’s a great feeling to collaborate with such a professional player in the region and we wish to continue to be a stable and reliable partner on their journey forward”, says Robert.
