Investment in QuantaSol

28 Jun 2007 07:02

Imperial Innovations Group plc28 June 2007 28 June 2007 Imperial Innovations Group plc ("Imperial Innovations") Investment in QuantaSol Limited Imperial Innovations Group plc, the technology commercialisation and investmentcompany (AIM: IVO) today announces that a £1.35 million investment round intoQuantasol has closed. As part of this round Imperial Innovations has invested£300,000 on a milestone basis in QuantaSol Limited (QuantaSol), a developer ofphotovoltaics (PV) - solar power technology that converts sunlight directly toelectricity. The round also included significant funding from Low CarbonAccelerator, NetScientific Ltd and Numis Corporation PLC. Following theinvestment, Imperial Innovations owns a 24% stake in the company. QuantaSol plans to provide solar photovoltaic cells for use in Concentrating PV(CPV) systems for the fast growing utility-scale solar power generation market.The company will use the funds to produce prototypes of its Quantum WellPhotovoltaic (QWPV) cells and to engage with potential customers for these solarPV cells. CPV systems use relatively inexpensive optics such as mirrors or lenses toconcentrate or focus light from a broad collection area onto a much smaller areaof active semiconductor PV cell material. Since the PV semiconductor materialusually dominates the costs of a solar PV system, reducing the amount of PVmaterial required to capture a given amount of sunlight leads to substantiallylower system cost and cost per watt of output. QuantaSol's "third generation"cells are based on Gallium arsenide (GaAs) and other III-V semiconductormaterials. These materials are more expensive than silicon, which is commonlyused for flat panel PV, but have more than double the photovoltaic efficiency.QuantaSol plans to manufacture single and multi-junction concentrator solarcells with efficiency levels of up to 40%. QuantaSol was formed in 2006 and is based on the research of Professor KeithBarnham, Emeritus Professor of Physics and Senior Research Investigator in theDepartment of Physics at Imperial College London; Dr. Massimo Mazzer, SeniorResearcher of the National Research Council of Italy; and Dr. John Roberts,Senior Research Scientist at The University of Sheffield. The company also has astrong and experienced management team in place which includes CEO Kevin Arthurwho has twenty-three years of international business development and operationalexperience in semiconductor manufacturing companies and technology start-ups. Following the investment, the board of QuantaSol will be strengthened furtherwith the appointment of Oliver Hemsley, CEO of Numis Corporation PLC, as anon-executive director. Susan Searle, Chief Executive, Imperial Innovations, said, "QuantaSol'stechnology is derived from strong research by a team of world-class scientists.We are keen to support them through the early stages and will continue to workwith them as they develop the company and become a significant player in thesolar energy market." Kevin Arthur, Chief Executive, QuantaSol, said, " We are very grateful for thesupport that we have received from Imperial Innovations, and are looking forwardto working with them and the rest of the investor group to take QuantaSolforward to become a major global supplier of third generation, high efficiencysolar cells." -Ends- For more information contact: Imperial InnovationsSusan Searle, Chief Executive Officer +44 (0)20 7594 6591Lucy Ahfong, Marketing Communications Executive +44 (0)20 7594 6644 M:CommunicationsPatrick d'Ancona / Harriet Totty +44 (0)20 7153 1590 JP Morgan Cazenove +44(0)20 7588 2828Steve Baldwin Notes to Editors About Imperial InnovationsImperial 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 spin-out companies, 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, Thiakis Limited and 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 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange