Imperial Innovations Group Regulatory News (IVO)

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28 July 2015

Imperial Innovations Group plc

Innovations completes £1 million seed investment in Inflowmatix

Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM: IVO, 'the Group', 'Innovations') has completed a £1.0 million seed investment in Inflowmatix (the "Company") a water network data analytics company recently spun out from Imperial College London. Innovations now holds a 42.5% stake in the Company.

Inflowmatix provides water flow and pipe health analytics to water utilities worldwide, enabling network operators to continuously monitor, diagnose and manage hydraulic instabilities, leading to reduced bursts, leakage and operating costs, whilst also enabling prioritised network maintenance.

The Company's first product is based on the research from Dr Ivan Stoianov's InfraSense Labs, in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Imperial College London. The InfraSense Labs has an interdisciplinary team with expertise in hydraulic and water quality modelling, embedded electronic systems and data analytics. It has developed a patent-protected prototype product InfraSense TS, developed specifically for the near real-time, continuous monitoring of the dynamic hydraulic conditions and water pipeline health. The seed funding will allow Inflowmatix to further develop this product.

Dr David Parker (FREng), a Venture Partner at Imperial Innovations, has joined the Board of Directors of Inflowmatix as Chairman. He has extensive experience in building companies from early-stage, through to private and public exits, along with a long career in senior management in technology corporates. Notable companies include HP, Agilent Technologies, Marconi, SPI and TRUMPF.

Dr Ivan Stoianov, founder of Inflowmatix, said:

"Much of the existing water infrastructure in many countries is approaching the end of its usable lifetime, while still being expected to provide high quality of service to increasing populations. In London, for example, almost half the water pipes are over 100 years old and many pumping stations are more than 40 years old.

"The optimal use of limited resources require continuous and near real-time information about the hydraulic behaviour of such complex systems to optimise their performance and improve incident management.

"Imperial Innovations has been very supportive throughout the development and spinout process and I am very pleased that they have decided to invest."

Kelsey Lynn Skinner, Director Technology Ventures at Imperial Innovations, added:

"Ivan and his lab have developed outstanding IP which offers significant benefits to water utility companies worldwide that need to balance the management of ageing infrastructure with the demands of a growing population.

"It is an exciting opportunity and a great example of how we can support scientists at Imperial from IP development and protection, through to company formation and beyond in a complex B2B market."

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Notes to editors

About Imperial Innovations - www.imperialinnovations.co.uk 

Imperial Innovations Group plc creates, builds and invests in pioneering technologies developed from the academic research within the 'Golden Triangle' broadly bounded by London, Cambridge and Oxford, which is home to the UK's four leading research-intensive universities.

This area is home to many new technology companies through its proximity to the academic communities of Imperial College London, the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford and University College London, as well as other leading research institutions.

Imperial College London, the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford and University College London collectively have research income of £1.4 billion per annum and are ranked as four of the top ten Universities in the world (source: QS World University Rankings 2014/15).

Innovations supports scientists and entrepreneurs in the commercialisation of their ideas through the licensing of intellectual property, by leading the formation of new companies, providing facilities in the early stages, providing investment and encouraging co-investment to accelerate development, providing operational expertise and recruiting high-calibre management teams. It also runs an incubator in London that is the initial home for many of its technology spin-outs.

Since admission of its shares to trading on AIM in 2006, Innovations has raised more than £346.0 million of equity from investors, which has enabled it to invest in some of the most exciting spin-outs to come out of UK academic research. In addition, the Group has agreed £80.0 million in loan facilities from the European Investment Bank (EIB) for investment in biotech and therapeutics businesses.

During the period from admission on AIM up until 31 January 2015, Innovations has invested a total of £198.3 million across its portfolio companies, which have raised collectively investment of £926.8 million rising to £1.0 billion including post period end investments and commitments.