Imperial Innovations Group Regulatory News (IVO)

11 Jul 2007 09:37

Imperial Innovations Group plc11 July 2007 Imperial Innovations Group plc ("Imperial Innovations") Low Carbon Seed Fund Invests £250,000 in Ashe Morris Ltd Imperial Innovations, the technology commercialisation and investment company (AIM: IVO), today announces that The Low Carbon Seed Fund, the £2 million fundestablished by Carbon Trust Investments Ltd, the Shell Foundation and ImperialInnovations, has invested £250,000 into Ashe Morris Limited, an engineeringdesign and technology licensing company focused on delivering breakthroughtechnologies to the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. This investment ispart of a total funding round of £815,000. Ashe Morris is a UK company based in Elstree which has developed a number of newreactor technologies for use primarily in chemical and pharmaceuticalmanufacturing processes. The first of these, referred to as Coflux(R), is a newbatch reactor technology that enables unprecedented speed and accuracy oftemperature control together with on-line heat measurement applicable tovirtually all designs and scales of batch reactor. The award-winning Coflux(R) technology uses the patented concept of a variablearea heating and cooling jacket. This provides a faster response time to changesin the process temperature, improves process conditions, reduces the energywaste associated with heating and cooling and, for the first time, delivers theability to monitor the process in real time. These features all deliverbottom-line process benefits. Ashe Morris is already selling lab-scale and pilot industrial scale unitsthrough its two licensees, Syrris/Radleys and Powder Systems Limited (PSL). AsheMorris is looking to develop further licensee relationships to deliveradditional application solutions and broaden distribution internationally. TheCoflux(R) technology is particularly well suited to applications where accuratetemperature control is essential, such as crystallisation and bio-processesprocesses. Ashe Morris will use the funds raised from this fundraising to develop Coflux(R)further both technically and commercially, and also invest in its new continuousreactor technologies which are becoming of increasing interest in the context ofthe chemical industry's focus on 'green chemistry' solutions. Susan Searle, CEO of Imperial Innovations, said, "We are excited that thisinvestment has been made in a company that not only has products on the market,but which also is looking to develop more to help satisfy increasing industrialappetite for energy-efficient process technology". Robert Ashe, Chairman of Ashe Morris, stated, "We are excited to have The Low Carbon Seed Fund as an investor. We believe Imperial Innovations' reputation and contacts, together with those of the fund's investors, Carbon Trust Investments Ltd and Shell Foundation will bring significant value to Ashe Morris. This fundraising also will allow Ashe Morris to develop its business more aggressively in the coming months and years". Robert Bahns, Investment Director at Imperial Innovations and manager of the LowCarbon Seed Fund, said, "Ashe Morris' technology is both simple and elegant, and has the potential to make a major improvement both to process and energy efficiency of many pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing processes. We are delighted to have the opportunity to back a great team with a truly novel technology". Jonathan Bryers, Investment Partner at CT Investment Partners LLP, the venturecapital commercial arm of the Carbon Trust, said, "This funding demonstrates the Carbon Trust's continuing commitment to thecommercialisation of emerging low carbon technologies, and the success of theCarbon Trust incubators in identifying and supporting promising early stageinvestment opportunities that the Low Carbon Seed Fund and other early stagefunds can invest in". -Ends- For more information contact: Imperial Innovations Susan Searle, Chief Executive Officer +44 (0)20 7594 6591Lucy Ahfong, Marketing Communications Executive +44 (0)20 7594 6644 M:Communications Patrick d'Ancona / Eleanor Williamson +44 (0)20 7153 1539 JPMorgan Cazenove (broker to Imperial Innovations)Steve Baldwin +44(0)20 7588 2828 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 intechnology businesses. A wide range of technologies are commercialised withinthe areas of healthcare, energy, environment and emerging technology trends. Based at Imperial College London, the company has established equity holdings in70 technology businesses and has completed 116 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 including BAE Systems. Imperial Innovations has invested in a range of technology businesses, includingThe Acrobot Company Limited, BioCeramic Therapeutics Limited, Cardiak Limited,Circassia Holdings Limited, deltaDOT Limited, Equinox Pharma Limited, FutureWaves PTE Limited, HeliSwirl Technologies Limited, InforSense Limited, IXICOLimited, Lontra Limited, Midaz Lasers Limited, NanoBioDesign Limited, NexeonLimited, NovaThera Limited, PolyTherics Ltd, QuantaSol Limited, Thiakis Limitedand Veryan Medical Limited. Imperial Innovations currently holds shares in four technology businesses nowlisted on AIM including the fuel cell company, Ceres Power plc. www.imperialinnovations.co.uk About The Low Carbon Seed Fund The Low Carbon Seed Fund was established with £1m from Carbon Trust InvestmentsLtd, and £1m from Imperial Innovations funded by a grant from the ShellFoundation. The fund invests in early stage UK companies which are developingclean or alternative energy technologies, including wind power, solar power,tidal power, fuel cells, biofuels, new materials and process improvement. Thefund invests between £50,000 and £250,000 in seed or early stage funding rounds. About Ashe Morris Limited Established in 2000, Ashe Morris is an engineering design and technology companyfocused on delivering breakthrough clean process technologies to thepharmaceutical and fine chemicals industries. The lead technology, referred toas Coflux(R), is a unique and patented new batch reactor technology thatdelivers step changes in chemical process economics and environmentalperformance. Ashe Morris has also been developing the next generation ofcontinuous reactor technologies in order to deliver 'green chemistry' and'process intensification' solutions. Ashe Morris commercialises its technologiesthrough licencing and partnership agreements with established high qualityequipment and solutions providers to the industry. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange