Ladimo Turned an EIC Accelerator Grant Into 3D Sensor Prototypes

Ladimo, a spin-off of Aalto University in Espoo, said it had built "the most accurate real-time sensor in the world": a laser that throws thousands of points onto a scene and a camera and software that turn them into a 3D point cloud, according to an Aalto University profile from January 2019. In the 5 June 2019 cut-off of the EIC SME Instrument Phase 2, the European Commission selected its project Smarter Vision Micro to shrink that sensor for robots, cars and phones, according to the Commission's list of selected companies. The grant was €1,665,125 towards a €2,378,750 project that was to run from 1 October 2019 to 30 September 2022, according to CORDIS.

It did not get that far. The Finnish trade register recorded the start of Ladimo's bankruptcy on 10 March 2022, according to the register notices of the Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH), and the business information service Asiakastieto lists the company as bankrupt and no longer operating. CORDIS says the EIC project was "terminated on 19 March 2022", six months before its planned end. The Commission's list names Ladimo as the only company in the project.

What Is Left of Ladimo

Nothing operates. The PRH register shows that Ladimo's VAT registration and two other tax registrations ended on 9 March 2022, the day before the bankruptcy was entered in the trade register, and that the bankruptcy ended on 9 October 2023, when the company was recorded as ceased and its trade register entry closed, so the company is dissolved, according to the YTJ business information system and the PRH notices. Kauppalehti also lists the company as having ceased trading. The register data does not show which court declared the bankruptcy, who filed for it, or what the estate paid to creditors.

The company's domain, ladimo.fi, no longer belongs to a sensor business. On 8 October 2026 it served a Finnish-language blog about the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup, with posts dated February 2026. No successor company, buyer of the technology or new venture of the founders could be found in public sources.

The Technology: Structured Laser Light and Calibration

Ladimo's sensor is a form of laser triangulation. A laser beam is split into thousands of dots, a camera sees where they land, and software calculates each dot's position in space. Palmén's contribution, according to Aalto, was a modular calibration method that corrects the optical and geometric errors that limit the accuracy of such systems. In an interview with the photonics industry body EPIC, published by Electro Optics, the company said it sent 2,509 laser points onto a target 100 times a second, with latency of 10 milliseconds or less, at distances of around 40 metres, and claimed accuracy "100 times greater than was possible before". No independent test of these figures was found.

The established alternatives are time-of-flight cameras and lidar, which measure how long light takes to return, and stereo cameras, which compare two images. Ladimo's argument was that its approach was more accurate at a lower bill of materials and needed less computing power, which mattered for phones and car cabins. CORDIS describes the project's aim as "a real-time miniaturized 3D optical system" for collaborative robots, self-driving cars and augmented reality devices.

What the EIC Project Promised, and What the Record Shows

Smarter Vision Micro was Ladimo's second SME Instrument grant. In 2018 it received €50,000 for SmartEye, a four-month Phase 1 feasibility study on 3D scanning for automated guided vehicles, according to CORDIS. The Phase 2 proposal named Porsche, Huawei and the robot maker Yaskawa as companies where it had "already risen traction", and forecast cumulative gross profit of €39 million and 80 new jobs in the first five years after the project.

The only periodic report on CORDIS says the laser, camera, optics and diffractive optical element were selected and tested, the software was developed, and pilots were started with Samsung and Logitech; it shows a prototype with a 30 mm baseline for a Samsung proof of concept and one with a 220 mm baseline for Logitech. It also reports a patent approved in Finland and Japan, and a demonstration for Helsinki University Hospital in which the sensor measured a heartbeat from 4 metres. A CORDIS news article from November 2021 quoted Halme saying the algorithm could run in real time on mobile phones, and reported delivery delays of more than four months for hardware components during the pandemic. The results page lists one patent application, "Modeling the topography of a three-dimensional surface", dated 7 June 2019, which North Data also records.

The report's own wording looks back: the sensor "would have had impact" in industrial automation, consumer electronics, driver monitoring and health care. Neither Samsung nor Logitech has said anything public about the pilots, and no product, customer contract or sale of the sensor was announced.

1. Miniaturised sensor components selected and testedDeliveredLaser, camera, optics and DOE tested, per the periodic report.
2. Prototypes and pilots with device makersPartlySamsung and Logitech prototypes reported by the company; no statement from either firm.
3. Patent protectionDeliveredPatent approved in Finland and Japan, per CORDIS.
4. Commercial launch through B2B sales and licencesNot achievedNo product or customer announced; revenue €15,000 in the last accounts.
5. 80 new jobs and €39M gross profit in five yearsNot achievedBankrupt in March 2022 with 7 staff.
6. Project completed by September 2022Not achievedTerminated on 19 March 2022.

The Money

Ladimo never made more than small revenue. Its operating loss grew from €318,000 in 2020 to €744,000 in 2021 and €945,000 in the final period, which ended in March 2022, according to Asiakastieto's summary of the filed accounts; revenue in that period was €15,000, and Kauppalehti gives the same turnover of €15,028.88. Asiakastieto also shows revenue of €71,000 for 2020 and €141,000 for 2021, but its margin percentages for those years do not match these figures, so they are not charted here. Average staff was 10 in 2020 and 2021 and 7 in the final period. Two final balance sheets were filed in May 2023, according to the PRH notices; their contents are not in the free register data.

Which private investors backed Ladimo, and how much they put in, is not clear. The database VCBacked lists Icebreaker.vc, Butterfly Ventures and Intel Ignite alongside the European Innovation Council, and Electro Optics reported that the company was "funded by Finnish venture capital companies". No round, amount or date was found in a second source. Ladimo is not on the EIC Fund's list of invested companies, which fits a grant-only award.

Why It Mattered to Europe

Accurate 3D vision is a basic input for collaborative robots, driver monitoring and automated factories. CORDIS featured Smarter Vision Micro in its November 2021 results pack on artificial intelligence and industry for European manufacturing, and the proposal itself argued that interest from "blue-chip international companies from competitor countries" showed European technological leadership. That interest, from Samsung, Logitech and the carmakers named in the proposal, did not turn into a business that kept the sensor in Europe.

The Verdict

A grant funds development, not sales, and Ladimo delivered part of what it set out to build. But the gap between its 2019 revenue forecast and its final accounts is wide, and the end of its EIC project came from the bankruptcy rather than from a finished product. Ladimo's founders and the EIC have not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records and published statements, linked throughout.