A Chicago startup is working to help firefighters better communicate and keep victims — and each other — safe during emergency and hazardous situations.
Ascent Integrated Tech, founded in 2020 by Paul Couston and Alex Gorsuch, makes sensor and communication capabilities designed for respiratory masks commonly used by firefighters.
The technology, which can be installed into existing equipment, allows firefighters to communicate with each other when in a hazardous environment. It also allows them to receive signals on where to go and when to evacuate, among other things. The sensors can also track biometric data, such as heart rate and body temperature.
Ascent Integrated Tech’s platform also helps fire department commanders monitor live situations better, and give better, more accurate direction to firefighters.
“Our solution is pretty much integrating into existing visors, fire hoods and radios of these operators, and augmenting and enhancing the sensor data that these pieces of equipment can track and then taking all that data and displaying it on an actionable portal,” Couston said. “It gives them a little bit more insight into the chaos that happens during those 20 to 30 minutes.”
Ascent Integrated Tech is operating pilots to test its tech with more than 20 fire departments across 17 states. The startup is also set to soon work with the Department of Defense, Couston said.
“We’re very optimistic about the applications of this fire service,” Couston said.
To help build out the company, Ascent Integrated Tech recently applied and was accepted into a hardware startup accelerator program at mHUB. Participating startups have access to funding through mHUB's $15 million venture fund, as well as follow-on investment from the program’s corporate partners.
“mHUB is really where hard-tech in Chicago lives,” Couston said.
Couston said Ascent Integrated Tech recently closed a $400,000 pre-seed round from investors, which included mHUB, as well as Illinois Ventures, Fox Ventures and Darley, a fire department equipment supplier based in Itasca, Illinois.
Couston is also the co-founder of Optivolt Labs, a startup with roots at the University of Illinois that builds solar-powered charging devices. The company participated in Techstars Chicago and has raised $2.5 million to date, Couston said. But he has now left Optivolt to focus on Ascent Integrated Tech full-time.
To perfect Ascent Integrated Tech’s product, Couston and his co-founder interviewed more than 100 fire chiefs across the U.S., and plan to continue refining their product as they collect feedback from the pilot programs.
“The next six to 12 months is to really pilot the technology, and make sure that it’s rugged, and fire-proof and water-proof,” Couston said. “We’re not trying reinvent fire hoods. We’re just building our technology on top of equipment they’ve already come to know, love and trust.”
