Investment team appointment

29 April 2013

Imperial Innovations Group plc

Investment team appointment

Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM: IVO, "Innovations" or "the Group"), a leading technology commercialisation and investment group, announces that Kelsey Lynn has joined as Director, Technology Ventures, focusing on building on the Group's existing technology portfolio.

Kelsey has previously worked with Innovations in an advisory role, and has also recently worked with several portfolio companies. She spent the last twelve years in California, working in new technology development and venture capital, most recently as a Partner with Silicon Valley's Firelake Capital, the early-stage venture capital firm focused on investments in materials science and resource productivity.

Prior to Firelake Capital, Kelsey worked in technology and strategy roles at the Global Climate and Energy Project, Stanford University, at the Electric Power Research Institute and at Google. Kelsey graduated with honours from Stanford University with a BS in Mechanical Engineering.

With immediate effect, Kelsey joins the board of Innovations' portfolio company Econic Technologies, which received a new investment of £1.75m ($2.7M) from Innovations in early April. Kelsey also plays an active role with various entrepreneurship and investment groups including London's HBS Angels and Cambridge University's technology entrepreneurship group, CUTEC. 

Russ Cummings, Innovation's Chief Investment Officer, said:

"Kelsey is a welcome addition to our investment team. Her high-growth Silicon Valley experience, technical background, and investment know-how, combined with our strong UK university research will help us identify the best technologies and work with them to create the next generation of leading businesses."

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; and 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 treatments for 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.