Southampton biochemical spin-out seeks c. £1M for biochemical sensors

Seeking Investment, Partnership

Southampton University spin-out, Stratophase, is looking for investment and partnership to develop and market a range of applications with innovative sensing, detection, wavelength conversion and laser systems.

Using optical waveguide circuit and non-linear optical technologies licensed from the Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton, Stratophase has developed proprietary technologies.  Based on their integrated optics technology, their sensing technology uses light to detect minute surface changes such as binding events including antibody, protein or DNA binding. This is carried out at lower cost and at a higher speed than current technologies.  The company’s wavelength conversion technology provides a way to efficiently modify laser wavelengths so that the lasers can be used for chemical sensing and spectroscopy, and they can be converted into visible colours for use in display and microscopy applications.

“We will be seeking investment, hopefully towards the end of the year,” said the company’s CEO, Dr. Richard Williams, “We anticipate attracting investors to participate in a round alongside our existing investors, the amount is not yet fully decided but may be in the region of £1 million plus,” said Williams, “These funds would be used to take our bio-chemical sensors to market, building on the work we have done with early customers. Aside from our current investors we don’t have any investors lined up since we are just beginning the process.”

In addition, Stratophase is looking to develop its products for marketing in different market sectors and is already “actively pursuing a partnership with a multinational in one market sector, and is keen to identify other partners who can contribute significantly to the commercialisation of our bio-chemical sensor technology – this can include a number of sectors including security, medical diagnostic devices, high-throughput screening, bio-molecular R&D etc,” said the CEO.

Dr. Williams heads the Stratophase team along with Prof. Peter Smith, director and co-founder.  The company was spun-out of Southampton University in 2003 and operates from Romsey, Hampshire.  It is currently backed by East Hill Asset Management (Boston), IP2IPO (London) and Sulis (London), having raised £2.8 million to date, and holds a strategic distribution partnership with Thorlabs.