Oxsensis secures £890,000 investment
Oxsensis Ltd Press Release 28 July 2005
Oxsensis secures £890,000 investment to develop sensors for energy efficiency and emissions reductions
Oxsensis Ltd, a spinout company from the CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in Oxfordshire, UK has secured £890,000 from Seven Spires, Rainbow Seed Fund and Strathdon Investments together with prominent private investors to accelerate development of its harsh environment sensors.
Oxsensis is working on advanced instrumentation for gas turbines in the aviation and power sectors, which is designed to enable major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions as well as considerable fuel savings. The extreme environment sensors also have applicability to energy intensive industries and to automotive engines. The optical sensors for pressure and temperature, co-developed by the company with scientists at RAL’s Central Microstructural Facility, are based on innovative technology using micromachined sapphire and are exclusively licensed to Oxsensis.
"A step-change in emissions in aviation and power generation requires control instrumentation to go where no sensors have gone before – right to the heart of the combustion system," said Oxsensis's Chief Executive David Gahan." I am delighted; the £890,000 investment will enable Oxsensis to concentrate on its product development and tests with customers," added Gahan.
Andrew Rickman, a director of Oxsensis said, "The spinout model followed by Oxsensis and RAL is a very good way of marrying hard technology to an entrepreneurial business approach. An excellent team has been assembled and Oxsensis has attracted good support from experienced technology investors"
Ian Page of Seven Spires said "I am very pleased to lead this investment in Oxsensis. I am impressed by their world-leading sensor technology and excited that it can be applied so directly to the twin global concerns of increased fossil fuel efficiency and reductions in carbon emissions."
Spires, Strathdon and others means that now Oxsensis can grow rapidly and develop into a significant business."
Hugh Stewart of Strathdon said,"The G8 leaders in their recent summit underlined the importance of acting with resolve and urgency to accelerate the deployment of clean technology. It’s an exciting time to be investing in a company like Oxsensis which is so well aligned to these goals."
Oxsensis is currently based on site at RAL, Oxfordshire, UK.
Contacts
Oxsensis Ltd
David F Gahan
CEO
Tel 01235 778120
info@oxsensis.com
Seven Spires
Ian Page
Tel: +44 01865 302 909
ian.page@sevenspires.co.uk
Rainbow Seed Fund
Terry Swainbank
Investment Manager
Tel +44 (0) 1608 737980
terry.swainbank@btinternet.com
Strathdon Holdings
Steve Burton
Tel +44 01962 870 492
steve.burton@strathdon.com
CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Natalie Bealing
CCLRC Press Officer
Tel + 44 (0)1235 445484
n.d.bealing@cclrc.ac.uk
Further Information
Oxsensis’ technology is based on the micromachining of super resistant materials such as single-crystal sapphire (melting point >2000C) together with innovative fibre optic interrogation techniques which give high sensitivity and immunity from electro-magnetic interference (EMI) effects common in turbo-machinery such as gas turbines.
At the end of the recent G8 summit, more than 1/3 of the final communiqué – a dozen pages – was made up of the section on Climate Change and Energy.
The world leaders acknowledged that global energy demands would increase 60% over the next 25 years, requiring $16 Trillion of investment in energy provision, but also that there were "serious challenges" in tackling Climate Change and that increased use of energy from Fossil Fuels contributes in large part to increases in Greenhouse Gases.
"The G8 have decided to act with resolve and urgency to meet the shared objectives of reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions" and have promised to "take actions to promote innovation, energy efficiency and to accelerate deployment of cleaner technologies" including "to support efforts to make electricity generation from fossil fuels" and also aero-engines and internal combustion engines cleaner and more efficient.
Seven Spires
Seven Spires Investments Ltd. is an angel investment fund established in 2003 with £25m of private money. We invest in UK, early-stage technologies and our portfolio includes companies in the fields of software, medical devices, semiconductors, materials and smart sensors. We look for internationally scalable, ’breakthrough’ technologies and will invest up to £1m p.a. per company. Where appropriate we will invest even at the pre-prototype stage.
Rainbow Seed Fund
The Rainbow Seed Fund invests to commercialise the outcomes of research at five of the UK’s public sector research establishments. The fund has £4m under management. Rainbow investment ranges from early stage proof of concept funding and market assessment to working capital for a start-up company. Rainbow is limited to investments of £250,000.
Strathdon Investments plc
CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL)
CCLRC is one of the UK’s research councils. It owns and operates world-leading large-scale science research facilities at its three sites: the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, the Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire and the Chilbolton Observatory in Hampshire. CCLRC is actively pursuing commercialisation of its diverse intellectual property base through its technology transfer company CLIK Knowledge Transfer.
www.cclrc.ac.uk
Credits & Links
Article written by Oxsensis.www.oxsensis.com
