11 Feb 2009 07:00
Embargoed: 0700hrs 11 February 2009
Imperial Innovations Group plc
("Imperial Innovations" or the "Company")
Imperial Innovations leads £10m investment round in portfolio company Nexeon
Imperial Innovations (AIM:IVO), a leading technology commercialisation and investment company, has led a £10 million investment round for portfolio company Nexeon Ltd ("Nexeon"). Imperial Innovations itself invested £4.0 million, one of its largest investments since its IPO, lifting its shareholding to 38.5%.
The investment in Nexeon, which is developing silicon anodes for lithium-ion batteries, follows Imperial Innovations' initial investment of £1.95 million in July 2007 as part of a £4.25 million fund raising. Nexeon was founded by Prof Mino Green of Imperial College London, and started life within the Imperial Innovations incubator. Progress at Nexeon over the past two years has been substantial. Nexeon has made significant technical progress in proving the viability of its silicon anode technology in terms of capacity and cycle life. It has expanded its intellectual property portfolio which now includes 12 patent families, with more in preparation. Nexeon already boasts a fully operational pilot plant, producing sufficient material to make high volumes of cells per day and with a good understanding of the cost model. This latest investment will enable Nexeon to construct a development and pilot-scale manufacturing facility.
Since Innovations' previous investment, Nexeon has appointed a further two Directors. Dr Bill Macklin has joined as Chief Technical Officer. Dr Macklin is an expert in the field of lithium-ion batteries and has published and patented extensively in the lithium-ion battery field. Ian McDonald is now Engineering Director. Mr McDonald has extensive experience of managing the design and build of lithium-ion battery manufacturing facilities.
Dr Paul Atherton is both Chairman of Nexeon and a non-executive director of Imperial Innovations. He holds an interest in 42,926 shares in Nexeon which represents 9.74% of the enlarged issued share capital.
Invesco Perpetual and PUK Ventures have invested £4.0m and £1.0m respectively alongside Imperial Innovations in this funding round. PUK Ventures previously invested alongside Imperial Innovations in the "A" round in 2007.
Susan Searle, Chief Executive of Imperial Innovations, commented,
"Imperial Innovations is pleased to be supporting Nexeon through its next phase. Technical progress is very encouraging and Nexeon has continued to build out its world class management team with a track record of bringing innovative materials to market in the lithium-ion battery industry. The market for lithium-ion batteries is currently worth over $8bn (2008) and forecast to grow strongly which makes us very excited about the future of the business."
Dr Paul Atherton, Chairman of Nexeon added,
"Having successfully nurtured the company and made great progress with the technology whilst in stealth mode, the time is right to emerge progressively from this phase and a key step is the construction of a new development and pilot-scale facility. The support from our investors today will enable us to accelerate our plans and we look forward with optimism to Nexeon's continued advancement."
For further information please contact:
Imperial Innovations
Susan Searle, Chief Executive
Diana Crisp, PR Manager
Tel. +44 (0)20 7594 6589
M:Communications
Patrick d'Ancona or Ben Simons
Tel. +44 (0)20 7153 1540
JPMorgan Cazenove (NOMAD to Imperial Innovations)
Steve Baldwin
Tel. +44(0)20 7588 2828
About Imperial Innovations
Imperial Innovations is one of the UK's leading technology commercialisation and investment companies. Founded in 1986, its ordinary shares were admitted to trading on the AIM Market of London Stock Exchange plc in July 2006, raising £26 million. It raised a further £30 million in November 2007 by means of a placing of new ordinary shares with investors.
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 commercialises a wide range of technologies primarily within the areas of healthcare, energy and the environment. www.imperialinnovations.co.uk
About Nexeon
Nexeon is refining novel battery technology, based on silicon anodes for lithium-ion batteries, to enable greater energy storage. The company is based on the research of Emeritus Professor Mino Green at the Department of Electrical Engineering at Imperial College London. Following early experiments at Imperial College London, the Company has been filing a sequence of patents covering a unique solution to the well known cycle-life problem with Silicon. The company has been operating in stealth mode for nearly 3 years while focussing on scaling up and optimising the technology. Nexeon has developed a number of proprietary processes and machines for producing the material and for making electrodes. Nexeon now has 12 patent families in progress worldwide, the first of which is granted and others which are now being published.
Nexeon will provide batches of lithium-ion cells for testing by companies which might wish to license this technology from it on a non-exclusive basis.
A pilot plant has been successfully designed, built, commissioned and tested and is now in operation, It is fully automated and instrumented and allows Nexeon to demonstrate a clear understanding of the costs and the path to full-scale manufacturing. www.nexeon.co.uk
About PUK Ventures
PUK Ventures is the investment business of Partnerships UK PLC. PUK Ventures invests in businesses with UK public sector sponsorship and strong commercial potential. The objective of the fund is to create and enhance the value of assets, including technology and IP, emanating from UK public bodies such as universities and public sector research labs.
The fund invests across most sectors and has historically invested in a broad range of technologies including medical/healthcare, clean/sustainable, information & communications and other engineering sciences. PUK Ventures is an active investor and works closely with portfolio companies in their strategic and operational development. www.pukventures.com