8th Oct 2009 07:00
8 October 2009
Imperial Innovations Group plc
Further investment in Plaxica's sustainable plastics
Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM: IVO, "Imperial Innovations", "the Group"), a leading technology commercialisation and investment company, has increased its investment in Plaxica, leading a £1m funding round supported by Carbon Trust Investments Limited and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA).
The investment will help Plaxica's continued development of new and more energy-efficient ways to create high-quality biodegradable plastics from renewable sources with a wide variety of applications.
Imperial Innovations invested £400,000 of the new funds with the rest of the investment coming from Carbon Trust Investments Limited and NESTA. Imperial Innovations previously helped founder scientists Prof. Vernon Gibson and Dr Ed Marshall from Imperial College London and John Hamlin, Imperial Innovations Entrepreneur in Residence, launch Plaxica in 2008, and provided seed funding of £250,000 prior to this round. In May 2009, Plaxica moved into the Imperial Innovations incubator. Imperial Innovations also helped Plaxica attract a £330,000 grant from the Technology Strategy Board and additional investment from the Carbon Trust and NESTA.
Susan Searle, CEO of Imperial Innovations, joined the Board of Plaxica in February 2009. Philip Holbeche, (ex-founding Chairman of Ceres Power who led that business through its IPO and landmark deal with Centrica) was appointed Chairman and John Hamlin (ex-BP Chemicals who was General Manager of the Performance Chemicals business which supplied materials to the plastics industry) Chief Executive earlier this year, both of whom have had previous associations with the Group.
Plaxica's goal is to develop the technology to make a sustainable polymer at a cost, and with the properties, that can directly compete with high volume plastics made from fossil oils. Plaxica's technology uses renewable feedstocks to produce a biodegradable polymer known as polylactic acid (PLA). The £1m investment will allow Plaxica to develop a less expensive, more energy-efficient (less CO2 intensive) PLA production process that also produces a stronger, higher-quality polymer that can be used in applications as diverse as packaging, textiles, housings and automobile parts.
Susan Searle, CEO of Imperial Innovations, said:
"Existing plastics are no longer sustainable because of the oil they use and the waste they leave. This investment will help Plaxica develop a low-cost and environmentally friendly alternative for a wide range of industrial and consumer applications."
Enquiries:
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Imperial Innovations |
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Susan Searle, Chief Executive Officer |
Tel. 020 7594 6589 |
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Diana Crisp, PR Manager |
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College Hill |
Tel. 020 7457 2020 |
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Adrian Duffield / Tony Stephenson |
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J.P. Morgan Cazenove (NOMAD to Imperial Innovations) |
Tel. 020 7588 2828 |
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Steve Baldwin |
Note to Editors
Imperial Innovations is one of the UK's leading technology commercialisation and investment companies. Founded in 1986 and admitted to the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange in 2006, Imperial Innovations' access to early stage technology and intellectual property is unparalleled.
Imperial Innovations' integrated commercialisation approach encompasses the identification of ideas, the protection of intellectual property, the development and licensing of technology and the formation, incubation and funding, through investment, of technology businesses.
Based at Imperial College London, Imperial Innovations' portfolio of equity holdings in more than 80 companies spans its three core areas of Healthcare, Engineering & IT, and Energy & Environment.
Companies in the portfolio of Imperial Innovations include: Circassia (allergy therapeutics), Evo Electric (electric motor and generator solutions), Nexeon (lithium ion battery technology), Polytherics (drug development), Quantasol (solar concentrators) and Respivert (respiratory drug development).
Imperial Innovations has already realised significant value from its investments to date including from a recent trade sale in December 2008 when Thiakis Limited, a company in which Imperial Innovations had a 23.7% stake, was sold for up to £100 million to US-based Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. More recent trade sales include certain Heliswirl IP to Technip and InforSense to IDBS.
www.imperialinnovations.co.uk
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