£1.5m investment in new software portfolio company

23 January 2013

Imperial Innovations Group plc

£1.5 million investment in data collection and analytics software business, Semetric as part of £3m round

Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM: IVO, 'Innovations'), a leading technology commercialisation and investment group, has invested £1.5m in Semetric, the technology firm behind global music analytics specialist, Musicmetric. The investment is part of a £3m funding round which also includes existing investor Pentech Ventures LLP, a venture capital fund focused on technology businesses.

Semetric's software platform aggregates and analyses data from thousands of online sources. Musicmetric, the first of Semetric's products to be launched, has risen to prominence through its work supporting insight and analysis across the global music industry. Customers already include EMI and MTV.

Musicmetric enables record labels and music marketers to analyse, benchmark and compare artist performance, aggregating online data alongside conventional sales information. Using information derived from social media platforms, music streaming and video sites, as well as BitTorrent consumption, Musicmetric produces a real-time chart ranking artist popularity.

Real-time data analysis allows the impact of marketing activities to be tracked against consumption, discussion or mentions of artists' music. Through a customisable interface, popular trends amongst consumers can be identified, enabling record labels to develop new talent in a particular area or allowing consumer brands to select an appropriate artist to support a marketing campaign.

Semetric's platform can be applied to other media verticals including television, film and video games. The current market for analytics in these areas and music totals around $3 billion annually.

Semetric was Co-founded in 2008 by Imperial College London student Gregory Mead, who is Chief Executive Officer, Marie-Alicia Chang & Matthew Jeffrey. Its Executive Chairman is Jeremy Silver, formerly global VP for New Media at EMI and Director of Media Affairs at Virgin Records; he was also CEO of Sibelius Software, which produces music composition software. Jon Edington, Director of Investments at Imperial Innovations, will join the board as a non-executive director.

Susan Searle, Chief Executive Officer, Imperial Innovations, said:

"Semetric's platform offers customers tangible insight into consumer behaviour, enabling brands and music companies to make better marketing and promotion decisions. With a strong and experienced team in place, Semetric is poised to make an impact across a range of media verticals. We are delighted to be making this investment, our second alongside Pentech Ventures."

Greg Mead, Semetric, Chief Executive Officer, said:

"The Musicmetric brand has become synonymous with music analytics and this investment will further enable us to develop the Semetric technology platform and drive similar success across television and film analytics. We are pleased that Imperial Innovations have recognised the huge opportunities that exist in media analytics, and welcome their support at this exciting time for the business."

Enquiries:

Notes to editors

Imperial Innovations - www.imperialinnovations.co.uk

Innovations creates, builds and invests in pioneering university technologies addressing global problems in healthcare, energy, engineering and the environment. It combines deep understanding of science and technology with commercial acumen and strong investment expertise.

Innovations supports scientist-entrepreneurs in the commercialisation of their ideas by:

·; leading the formation of new companies and providing facilities in the early stages

·; providing significant investment and encouraging co-investment to accelerate the transition from R&D to products

·; providing operational expertise

·; helping to recruit high-calibre industry figures and experienced entrepreneurs as executive management and Board members

Innovations invests in companies based on technologies from or associated with four universities: Imperial College London; Cambridge University, Oxford University, and UCL supported by its collaborations with Cambridge Enterprise, OSEM and UCL Business. These are the UK's leading research intensive universities, measured by research income.

By raising £140 million in January 2011, Innovations has been able to accelerate the making of, and increase the size of its investments. In the year to 31 July 2012, Innovations invested £37.9 million (2011: £35.1 million) in 29 ventures, and made 11 investments in new companies.

In its current portfolio of 78 companies, Innovations' most advanced assets include Circassia, which develops innovative vaccines for the treatment of a wide range of allergies; and Nexeon, a battery materials and licensing company which develops silicon anodes which extend the life and increase the capacity of lithium-ion batteries.

Semetric - www.semetric.com

Semetric was founded in 2008 by Gregory Mead, an Imperial College London student alongside Marie-Alicia Chang from University College London and Matthew Jeffery from Exeter University. The Chief Technical Officer, Jameel Syed, was previously at Inforsense (sold to IDBS in 2008). Its Executive Chairman, Dr Jeremy Silver, was previously CEO of Sibelius Software and Vice President New Media at EMI Group in Los Angeles.

Musicmetric - www.musicmetric.com

Musicmetric is the trading name of the music analytics product line from Semetric Ltd, with offices in London and Los Angeles.

Musicmetric tracks online trends in music and makes this data available to those working in the music industry. The data covers activity on social media, mentions and sentiment on news and blogs, sales and filesharing activity on the BitTorrent network.