10th Aug 2009 07:00
10 August 2009
Imperial Innovations Group plc
Further investments in three portfolio companies
Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM: IVO, "Imperial Innovations"), a leading technology commercialisation and investment company, announces further investments in three of its portfolio companies.
£500,000 investment in Novacem to combat global warming with 'carbon-negative' cement
Novacem is developing novel cement that reduces the amount of carbon dioxide produced in its creation and absorbs and locks away atmospheric CO2 on hardening. Because the production of conventional Portland cement is thought to be responsible for 5% of global CO2 emissions, this 'carbon negative' cement could have significant benefits in the fight against global warming.
Imperial Innovations invested £500,000 in a £1m round of seed equity funding, with the Royal Society Enterprise Fund and the London Technology Fund providing the balance. Imperial Innovations owns 39.5% of Novacem, which has appointed Jon Page, Imperial Innovations' Director of New Ventures to its Board.
Novacem's technology is based on the research and inventions of Dr Nikolaos Vlasopoulos (Chief Scientist) and Dr Chris Cheeseman (Senior Scientific Advisor) from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College London. Imperial Innovations provided incubation facilities for the newly created company as well as some pre-seed funding to help Novacem recruit a commercial manager and develop a business plan. In addition, it was instrumental in helping Novacem secure a £1m grant from the Technology Strategy Board and worked closely with Novacem to recruit an experienced executive chairman, Stuart Evans.
Clean technologies are a major focus for Imperial Innovations, which has also provided significant funding and expertise to help launch other clean tech companies including EVO Electric and Quantasol.
£333,000 helps Cortexica replicate human vision
Cortexica Vision Systems Ltd has developed technology that enables computers to see the way humans do. Its first product, BrandTrack for Video, monitors streams of video, on-line TV, or Broadcast programmes on a continual frame basis so that multiple objects such as logos and brands can be found and tracked continuously (24/7) in real-time. The system is being deployed to analyse sporting events for sponsorship return on investment as well as international advertisement monitoring, replacing the current labour-intensive and subjective processes.
Imperial Innovations led a second round of seed funding, alongside co-investor Esmee Fairbairn. Imperial Innovations owns 31.5% of Cortexica, which has appointed Imperial Innovations' CFOO, Julian Smith to its Board.
Cortexica Vision Systems Limited has commercialised the research of Dr Anil Bharath and Dr Jeffery Ng from the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London. They have studied the way the human brain analyses visual information and replicated this in the Cortexica technology, which imitates human visual behaviour using advanced hardware and software engineering.
Further investment in Acrobot's precision surgical systems
Imperial Innovations has invested alongside the Pan London Technology Fund and PUK Investment in a further funding round in Acrobot, which is developing precision surgical systems for computer-assisted 3D planning, surgical navigation and surgeon-controlled robotic surgery. Since its inception, the company has received more than £3m investment from this syndicate.
Acrobot was formed as a result of collaboration between Professor Justin Cobb, Chair of Orthopaedics at Imperial College London, and Professor Brian Davies, Medical Robotics also at Imperial. The overall goals of Acrobot's technology are to provide speed, accuracy and reproducibility, enhancing clinical outcomes, whilst augmenting surgeon skills, increasing productivity and promoting bone conservation.
Imperial Innovations nominated Galvin Mould to the Acrobot Board. He was previously president at Orthofix International and VP of Marketing at Zimmer.
Susan Searle, CEO of Imperial Innovations, said:
"We are confident that the investments we have made in these three portfolio companies, along with the management expertise we have provided, will help them become world leaders in their respective fields. Furthermore, these investments in green technology, surgical robotics and image processing demonstrate the diversity of technologies we are supporting."
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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Carl Franklin / Sue Charles |
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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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