25th Sep 2006 14:40
Imperial Innovations Group plc25 September 2006 Imperial Innovations Group plc ("Imperial Innovations") Investment in Midaz Lasers Limited Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM: IVO), one of the leading technologytransfer and commercialisation companies in the UK, today announces that it hasformed and made a seed investment of £150,000 in spin-out Midaz Lasers Limited("Midaz"), a company which develops lasers for industrial markets. Theinvestment in Midaz by Imperial Innovations is part of a £300,000 funding round. Midaz is developing a range of high power diode-pumped solid state laserproducts including one that is believed to be the world's smallest, mostefficient and highest quality. It is proven to have high output power and highbeam quality suitable for micromachining applications and has the potential tobe used in many other applications including inspection, medical and sensingapplications. The laser's low manufacturing cost would make it a suitablereplacement for industrial inkjets used in coding and marking products, removingthe need for ink. The company will use the funds raised to develop pre-production prototypes andfulfil initial customer requests from system integrators. The technology stems from the research conducted at Imperial College London byProfessor Michael Damzen and his team in the Department of Physics. ProfessorDamzen, a leading world expert in the field of experimental laser physics willalso become the Technology Director of Midaz. Dr Ara Minassian, also from theDepartment of Physics is co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer. The Board of Midaz is strengthened further by the addition of ImperialInnovations's non-executive director, Dr Paul Atherton as Chairman. Dr Athertonis an experienced entrepreneur and has worked with a range of start-ups,including Queensgate Instruments, which he co-founded while working for his PhDat Imperial College, acting as Managing Director until its sale in March 2000.He is an active angel investor and has invested the balance of £150,000 in Midazin this funding round. Dennis Camilleri also joins the company as Business Development Director andbrings to the company 25 years experience in laser sales and marketing havingpreviously worked at Melles Griot UK and Willett. Commenting on the investment, Dr Paul Atherton, Chairman of Midaz, said, "We are delighted to have completed our first seed-round financing and aregrateful to Imperial Innovations for its continued support." Susan Searle, CEO of Imperial Innovations, said, "The technology behind Midaz is the result of many years research by Michael andhis team. Having demonstrated commercial Proof of Concept, Midaz has been formedwith a great management team. We look forward to supporting Midaz as it developsits pre-production prototypes." -Ends- For more information contact: Imperial InnovationsSusan Searle, Chief Executive Officer +44 (0)20 7594 6591Lucy Ahfong, Marketing Communications Executive +44 (0)20 7594 6644 M:CommunicationsEleanor Williamson +44 (0)20 7153 1539 Notes to Editors About Imperial Innovations Imperial Innovations is one of the UK's leading technology transfer andcommercialisation companies. The company was founded in 1986 and its ordinaryshares admitted to trading on the AIM Market of London Stock Exchange plc inJuly 2006, raising £26 million. The company's integrated approach encompassesthe identification of ideas, protection of intellectual property, developmentand licensing of technology and formation, incubation and investment in spin-outcompanies. A wide range of technologies are commercialised within the areas ofbioscience and technology and engineering. Based at Imperial College London, the company has established equity holdings in58 spin-out companies and has completed 90 commercial agreements. ImperialInnovations also commercialises technologies originating from outside ImperialCollege through incubation contracts with the Carbon Trust and WRAP and hasrelationships with a number of multinational corporations. Imperial Innovations has invested in a range of spin-out companies including TheAcrobot Company Limited, Cardiak Limited, deltaDOT Limited, Future Waves PTELimited, HeliSwirl Technologies Limited, InforSense Limited, Lontra Limited,Midaz Lasers Limited, NanoBiodesign Limited, Nexeon Limited, NovaThera Limited,Photobiotics Limited, Thiakis Limited and Veryan Medical Limited. Imperial Innovations currently holds shares in three spin-out companies nowlisted on AIM; fuel cell company, Ceres Power plc, and ParOS plc, a provider ofenergy-saving advanced control solutions, as well as Nanoscience plc, adeveloper of low power integrated circuits and silicon chips, following itsacquisition of spin-out company Toumaz Technology Limited. Website: www.imperialinnovations.co.uk This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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