Imperial Innovations: Renewal of contract with Carbon Trust

Posted by Imperial Innovations

Contract renewed

Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM: IVO), the technology commercialisation and investment company, today announces that its contract with the Carbon Trust to provide incubation services to low carbon start-up companies has been renewed, extending it into a second two- year term. 

First set up in February 2004, the Carbon Trust Imperial Innovations Incubator is one of four incubator centres in the UK, created to help companies showing commercial and technical promise become investment-ready.  Services provided with the aim of bringing early stage, low carbon technologies to the market place include: the provision of strategic and business development consultancy; advice on corporate finance; mentoring for management teams; energy-related market research; and guidance on technical support.

A total of eleven start-up companies has been supported and developed in the Carbon Trust Imperial Innovations Incubator to date.  These include a wide range of companies from across the UK, developing renewable energy, energy efficiency savings and other means of enabling carbon emission reductions.   Examples include:  

• HeliSwirl Technologies Ltd, a technology business formed by Imperial Innovations that recently received the 2006 AMEC Award for Innovation and Excellence in SMEs from the Institute of Chemical Engineers, and is now applying its technology in the petrochemical and oil extraction fields 
  
  
• Lontra Limited, an environmental technology developer and the first company based on research emanating from a source other than Imperial College London to receive an investment from Imperial Innovations. The £250,000 investment will enable Lontra to develop and test a prototype for a compressor  

Simon Hombersley, Business Development Director at Lontra said, “The incubation programme has achieved its objectives for us; our company now has investors, board and potential partners in addition to the skills and understanding to develop independently to the next phase.  Imperial Innovations has helped us attain these goals with skill and expertise, and we are grateful for the close working relationship that underpinned the programme’s successful delivery.”

Susan Searle, CEO, Imperial Innovations said, “We are pleased to have the opportunity to continue our work with the Carbon Trust with the aim of bridging the seed funding gap for innovative growth-orientated companies.”  

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For more information contact:

Imperial Innovations  

Susan Searle, Chief Executive Officer    +44 (0)20 7594 6591

Lucy Ahfong, Marketing Officer     +44 (0)20 7594 6644

M:Communications

Patrick d’Ancona / Eleanor Williamson    +44 (0)20 7153 1539           

The Carbon Trust

The Carbon Trust press office     +44 (0)20 7544 3100

About Imperial Innovations

Imperial Innovations is one of the UK's leading technology transfer and commercialisation companies.  The company was founded in 1986 and its ordinary shares admitted to trading on the AIM Market of London Stock Exchange plc in July 2006, raising £26 million.  The company’s integrated approach encompasses the identification of ideas, protection of

intellectual property, development and licensing of technology and formation, incubation and investment in technology businesses.  A wide range of technologies are commercialised within the areas of healthcare, energy, environment and emerging technology trends.

Based at Imperial College London, the company has established equity holdings in 66 technology businesses and has completed 90 commercial agreements.  Imperial Innovations also commercialises technologies originating from outside Imperial College through incubation contracts with the Carbon Trust and WRAP and has relationships with a number of multinational corporations including BAE Systems.

Imperial Innovations has invested in a range of spin-out companies, including The Acrobot

Company Limited, Cardiak Limited, deltaDOT Limited, Future Waves PTE Limited, HeliSwirl

Technologies Limited, InforSense Limited, Lontra Limited, Midaz Lasers Limited,

NanoBioDesign Limited, Nexeon Limited, NovaThera Limited, Thiakis Limited and Veryan

Medical Limited.    

Imperial Innovations currently holds shares in four technology businesses now listed on AIM including the fuel cell company, Ceres Power plc.

About The Carbon Trust

The Carbon Trust works with UK business and the public sector to cut carbon emissions and develop commercial low carbon technologies.  An independent company set up by Government to help the UK meet its climate change obligations, the Carbon Trust creates practical business-focused solutions to carbon emission reduction on energy efficiency, carbon management, and investment.

The Carbon Trust's annual funding is in excess of £105m in grants from the Department

for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Scottish Executive, the Welsh Assembly Government and Invest NI.

For more information on the Carbon Trust visit www.carbontrust.co.uk or call the Carbon
Trust on 0800 085 2005.