U.K. shopping centre REIT Intu has made a venture capital investment into a tech company.

According to tech funding website Crunchbase and lighting magazine LEDs Magazine, Intu has joined a £3M Series A funding round for Welsh company enModus.

The company is developing a system called Wattwave, which allows data to pass along existing electricity cables to nodes and hubs attached to lights.

The system is innovative because it allows lights to be connected to sensors and linked in a network in places where Bluetooth or WiFi might not work because buildings are high or strange sizes — like shopping centres.

Wattwave means property owners do not need to put in new infrastructure to create a smart lighting system. And if combined with LED lights it can cut lighting costs by 90%, enMondus said.

Intu is trialling the system in its London HQ and its Intu Watford centre.

“We were impressed by the team at enModus and the massive potential their technology offers,” Intu commercial and digital director Trevor Pereira told LEDs magazine. He said the investment reflects Intu's ongoing efforts at “spotting new ideas and innovations that will help shape the future of our industry and the way in which we operate.”

In May, Intu launched an innovation lab to come up with initiatives to make its centres more sustainable.