Parkwalk – First Light Fusion Successful Exit
Parkwalk, the leading EIS investor in UK University spin-out companies, is pleased to announce the exit of the majority of its holding in First Light Fusion via a successful sale to Oxford Sciences Innovation.
Parkwalk was one of the initial investors in the company when it was formed in June 2011 and has invested in subsequent funding rounds. The sale will give Parkwalk’s EIS investors a significant, double digit multiple return on their investment.
YASA Motors – Parkwalk closes follow-on investment
We are delighted to announce that the Parkwalk Opportunities Fund has led a funding round in YASA Motors, a spin-out from the University of Oxford. The company aims to commercialise its patented technology in electric motors and generators across a range of product areas.
YASA Motors (YASA) was incorporated in 2009 to commercialise the unique motor topology developed by founder and CTO Dr Woolmer at the University of Oxford. The Yokeless And Segmented Armature design – hence YASA – allows more efficient use of key magnetic and structural materials.
Ilika plc – Financial statements for year ended 30 April 2017
11 Jul 2017
Ilika (AIM: IKA), the accelerated materials innovation company, announces its audited full-year results for the year ended 30 April 2017.
Ilika plc – Toyota Research Institute brings artificial intelligence to the hunt for new materials with Ilika
Ilika (AIM: IKA), a pioneer in materials innovation and solid-state battery technology, announces that Toyota Research Institute (TRI) has released further information relating to the collaboration Ilika announced on 9th March 2017.
The TRI announcement issued at 13:00 hrs UK time today reads as follows: “The Toyota Research Institute (TRI) will collaborate with research entities, universities and companies on materials science research, investing approximately $35 million over the next four years in research that uses artificial intelligence to help accelerate the design and discovery of advanced materials. Initially, the program will aim to help revolutionize materials science and identify new advanced battery materials and fuel cell catalysts that can power future zero-emissions and carbon-neutral vehicles.
“Toyota recognizes that artificial intelligence is a vital basic technology that can be leveraged across a range of industries, and we are proud to use it to expand the boundaries of materials science,” said TRI Chief Science Officer Eric Krotkov. “Accelerating the pace of materials discovery will help lay the groundwork for the future of clean energy and bring us even closer to achieving Toyota’s vision of reducing global average new-vehicle CO2 emissions by 90 percent by 2050.”
Initial research projects include collaborations with Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Michigan, the State University of New York at Buffalo, the University of Connecticut, and the U.K.-based materials science company Ilika. TRI is also in ongoing discussions with additional research partners.
“This represents a fantastic opportunity to drastically advance the use of databases and machine learning methods in materials discovery.” Said Jens Norskov, Professor at Stanford University and director of the SUNCAT center. “The partnership combines theory, computation and experiment in an unprecedented, concerted effort. We are particularly excited by prospects for an avant-garde approach to catalyst development for fuel cells.”
Research will merge advanced computational materials modeling, new sources of experimental data, machine learning and artificial intelligence in an effort to reduce the time scale for new materials development from a period that has historically been measured in decades. Research programs will follow parallel paths, working to identify new materials for use in future energy systems as well as to develop tools and processes that can accelerate the design and development of new materials more broadly.
In support of these goals, TRI will partner on projects focused on areas including:
· The development of new models and materials for batteries and fuel cells;
· Broader programs to pursue novel uses of machine learning, artificial intelligence and materials informatics approaches for the design and development new materials; and,
· New automated materials discovery systems that integrate simulation, machine learning, artificial intelligence and/or robotics.
Accelerating materials science discovery represents one of four core focus areas for TRI, which was launched in 2015 with mandates to also enhance auto safety with automated technologies, increase access to mobility for those who otherwise cannot drive and help translate outdoor mobility technology into products for indoor mobility.
About Toyota Research Institute
Toyota Research Institute is a wholly owned subsidiary of Toyota Motor North America under the direction of Dr. Gill Pratt. The company, established in 2015, aims to strengthen Toyota’s research structure and has four initial mandates: 1) enhance the safety of automobiles, 2) increase access to cars to those who otherwise cannot drive, 3) translate Toyota’s expertise in creating products for outdoor mobility into products for indoor mobility, and 4) accelerate scientific discovery by applying techniques from artificial intelligence and machine learning. TRI is based in the United States, with offices in Los Altos, CA, Cambridge, MA, and Ann Arbor, MI. For more information about TRI, please visit www.tri.global.”
For more information contact:
| Ilika plc | www.ilika.com | ||
| Graeme Purdy, Chief Executive | Tel: 023 8011 1400 | ||
| Steve Boydell, Finance Director |
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| Toyota Research Institute |
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| John Hanson, Director, Communications & Public Affairs | Tel: +1.657.331.1291 | ||
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Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc |
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| Brian R. Lyons, Senior Manager-Advanced Technology Communications | Tel: +1.310.468.2552 | ||
| Numis Securities Limited | Tel: 020 7260 1000 | ||
| Oliver Cardigan/ Paul Gillam (Corporate Adviser) |
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| James Black/ Michael Burke (Corporate Broking) |
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| Walbrook PR Ltd |
Tel: 020 7933 8780 /ilika@walbrookpr.com |
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| Paul Cornelius | Mob: 07866 384 707 | ||
| Lianne Cawthorne | Mob: 07584 391 303 | ||
Ceres Power – Half Year Results
08 Mar 2017
New partners, new markets and a growing international presence – INCLUDING FIRST PRODUCT LAUNCH PARTNER
Ceres Power Holdings plc (“Ceres Power”, the “Company” or the “Group”) (AIM: CWR.L), a world leading developer of low cost, next generation fuel cell technology, announces its half-yearly results for the six months ended 31 December 2016.
Highlights
· New commercial partners including first ‘go-to-market’ agreement:
o Two new development agreements signed in the period, bringing total to four including with Honda, Nissan, Cummins and a further global OEM
o First ‘go-to-market’ agreement signed with global OEM to develop and launch highly efficient combined heat and power (“CHP”) product for business markets
· Strong revenue and pipeline: Revenue and other operating income for first half year tripled to £1.5 million (FH1 2016: £0.5m). Aiming for full year to at least double. Order book of £4.8 million as at 31 December 2016 and 3 new evaluation agreements underway with potential future partners.
· First significant US commercial success with global power leader Cummins & the US Department of Energy to develop an energy system for Data Centre and commercial scale applications
· New market opportunities enabled by rapid progress in SteelCell™ technology. The improvements in efficiency, robustness and power density have opened up new high growth power markets in commercial/business sectors
· Successful fundraise: £20m placing enables continued investment in business and technology
Financial Highlights:
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Six months ended 31 December 2016 (unaudited) |
Six months ended 31 December 2015 (unaudited) |
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£’000 |
£’000 |
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Total revenue and other operating income, comprising: |
1,551 |
453 |
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Revenue 1 |
1,026 |
235 |
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Other operating income |
525 |
218 |
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Operating loss |
(6,242) |
(6,235) |
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Equity free cash flow 2 |
(4,176) |
(5,431) |
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Net cash and short term investments |
22,174 |
12,753 |
1 2016 revenue includes the release of £0.4 million of deferred revenue in respect of contracted work completed for British Gas (2015: £0.1m)
2 Equity free cash outflow (EFCF) is the net change in cash and cash equivalents in the year (£0.2 million) less net cash generated from financing activities (£19.4 million) plus the movement in short term investments (-£15.0 million)
Phil Caldwell, CEO of Ceres Power said: “Ceres Power is on track for an excellent year, driven by new commercial partnerships, the rapid progress of our technology and our first ‘go-to market’ agreement bringing us closer to a first product launch. We said we would sign five partners by the end of 2017 and with four to date we are on track to do just that, plus we have three new evaluation agreements and a strong pipeline with a series of international prospective partners.
With a forward order book of £4.8 million and a successful fundraising secured, we are in a strong position to capitalise on significant market opportunities. As the world wrestles with the growing challenge of a decarbonising and decentralising energy system, our proven SteelCell™ technology, and our work with global power specialists, shows Ceres Power is capable of providing a cheaper, cleaner, distributed alternative to centralised power generation.”
For further information please contact:
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Ceres Power Holdings plc |
+44 (0)1403 273 463 |
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Zeus Capital (Nominated Adviser and Broker) |
+44 (0) 20 3829 5000 |
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Powerscourt |
+44 (0) 20 7250 1446 |
About Ceres Power
Ceres Power is a world leader in low cost, next generation fuel cell technology for use in distributed power products that reduce operating costs, lower CO2, SOx and NOx emissions, increase efficiency and improve energy security. The Ceres Power unique patented SteelCell™ technology generates power from widely available fuels at high efficiency and is manufactured using standard processing equipment and conventional materials such as steel, meaning that it can be mass produced at an affordable price for domestic and business use. Ceres Power offer its partners the opportunity to develop power systems and products using its unique SteelCell technology and know-how, combined with the opportunity to supply the SteelCell™ in volume through its manufacturing partners. For further information please visit: http://www.cerespower.com/
Chief Executive’s statement
Ceres Power is well positioned to continue to execute its strategy as an enabling technology provider for the world’s leading power systems companies. The SteelCell™ technology and the Company’s expertise have a growing, global reputation and we are on target for an extremely successful year.
The market opportunity – enabling a decarbonised and decentralised energy system
· Climate change and the need for clean air, reinforced by the Paris COP21 agreement and leading global corporates, is maintaining the momentum towards cleaner distributed power generation
· The inexorable growth of the Electric Vehicle and Data Centre sectors will increase the demand for electricity and, coupled with increasing wind and solar generation, will destabilise the centralised power generation model
· Advancements in Ceres Power’s SteelCell™ technology have opened up sector opportunities beyond Residential to include the fast-growing Data Centre, Electric Vehicle and Business sectors
· SteelCell™ is a significantly superior alternative to conventional gas and diesel engines as it produces close to zero SOx and NOx emissions at a higher efficiency
We are working towards a vision of embedding our cutting-edge SteelCell™ technology into world-leading products within the Home, Business, Data Centre and Electric Vehicle markets. Ceres Power has traditionally been focussed on micro-CHP in the Residential market, however significant progress has enabled SteelCell™ to rapidly establish itself as a leader in markets where higher power output is required, significantly expanding the business opportunity.
The majority of our customer demand is now for larger power systems than our residential scale product offering, and to proportionately address these high value markets, we have started developing larger cells and stacks.
With a strong start to 2017, the Company is ready to capitalise commercially by securing more key partners, as well as progressing our existing relationships.
Commercial Progress
· First ‘go-to-market’ agreement signed to develop and launch a highly efficient Combined Heat and Power product to target the business sector
· First significant US success with agreement to develop a power system for data centres and commercial scale applications
· Field trials progressing well as part of the EU-funded ene.field programme
In the Autumn, Ceres Power announced its key development role in a recently selected US Department of Energy programme which was awarded to global power leader, Cummins Inc. Together, Ceres Power and Cummins will work closely to develop a power system targeting high electrical efficiency of 60% and scalable to meet multiple distributed power applications. The initial target application will be the fast-growing Data Centre market, this power system will be applicable to other commercial scale uses.
Before the end of 2016, Ceres Power announced a joint development licence agreement to develop and launch a multi-kW CHP product its SteelCell™ technology with a leading global OEM. This is Ceres Power’s fourth partnership signed and most notably its first ‘go-to-market’ agreement with the explicit intention of developing and launching a product to the business sector on an ambitious schedule. This is a highly significant step.
Furthermore, field trials, as part of the EU-funded ene.field programme in UK homes, demonstrate the growing maturity of this technology and underpin the reputation of the SteelCell™ with our OEM customers.
As a result of this commercial progress, our order book has increased to £4.8m as of 31 December 2016.
Rapid technological progress highlights Ceres Power expertise
With a well-established R&D roadmap, real progress with the performance of the technology continues to be made. The most recent milestone saw the latest iteration of the SteelCell™ platform (version 4) released to customers on time and budget, reinforcing the Company’s reputation for successfully executing against its technology timelines.
Higher power density and fast start-up timescales have been proven, making the SteelCell™ increasingly commercially attractive in a growing number of markets. The technology is well-suited as a range extender for the Electric Vehicle market and the net electrical efficiencies now being delivered see Ceres Power developing solutions for the Data Centre market.
The core technology is increasingly applicable to customers that require a higher power output and we are now increasing cell size and optimising stack design to meet their requirements.
Adding operational capability to position ourselves for commercialization
We have seen a significant increase in customer demand for the SteelCell™ technology over the past 6 months, particularly for high power applications. This increased demand for our existing SteelCell™ technology combined with the development of larger cells and stacks for new applications has led to the need for further investment in our manufacturing and test capability.
In the near term, additional demand is being met by increasing manufacturing capacity in Horsham through the addition of a 3rd shift pattern along with bringing through improvements to key process steps. Beyond this, we are beginning to explore a number of options for further manufacturing scale-up.
Financial progress
As highlighted above, the multiple customer programmes won in the past 12 months are driving our revenues forward. Compared to the same period last year, we have tripled revenue and other operating income to £1.5 million. We expect this uplift to continue into the full year, where we aim to at least double our revenue and other operating income. It is encouraging that this is being achieved across a growing portfolio of customer programmes.
Our equity free cash outflow of £4.2 million in the period was less than the prior period (£5.4m), mostly due to the Group receiving its R&D tax credit of £2.2m in full (prior period received £0.8m, part of the R&D tax credit, in the period). Even though we are investing in people and in making the technology more suitable for customers that require a higher power output, as we highlighted in last year’s annual report, we expect both our operating loss and our equity free cash outflow for the full year to decrease from the prior year.
We were very pleased with our £20m fundraise in the period, especially given the uncertain economic conditions in the last 6 months. At 31 December 2016, the Group had cash and cash equivalents of over £22 million and this financial strength, at a key stage for the Company as we negotiate long term partnerships with a number of the world’s leading companies, gives us the runway to further embed our SteelCell™ in customer development and ‘go-to-market’ programmes.
Outlook
Our vision is to embed our cutting-edge SteelCell™ technology into world-leading products within the Home, Business, Data Centre and Electric Vehicle markets.
The leadership team committed itself to signing five global engineering companies as customers in joint development agreements by the end of 2017 and being in two launch programmes with OEM partners by the end of 2018. With four joint development agreements and one launch programme already signed, Ceres Power is ahead of its stated schedule. We expect to secure further commercial partners in due course and to make further progress with our existing partners.
We anticipate that the commercial progress we are making will further drive revenues in the second half of FY 2016/17 and into FY 2017/18.
Ceres Power has a committed, experienced team and we would like to offer our thanks for their continued efforts which we believe will translate into even greater commercial progress over the next 12 months.
Philip Caldwell
Chief Executive Officer
Ilika – Parkwalk investment
We are delighted to announce that the Parkwalk Opportunities EIS Fund has participated in a £6.3m funding round in Ilika, an AIM listed company which specialises in materials innovation. The company has developed unique solid state battery technology which may have applications across the Internet of Things (IoT).
Ilika spun out of the University of Southampton’s School of Chemistry in 2004 and quickly established a reputation for the rapid development of novel materials, working with a variety of international companies.
Ilika has a wealth of experience in materials and in working with industrial partners. The company’s novel solid-state battery technology is now close to commercialisation in a market which is large and growing rapidly.
Ceres Power – Parkwalk investment
We are delighted to announce that the Parkwalk Opportunities EIS Fund has participated in a £20m funding round in Ceres Power, the specialist provider of low cost, next generation fuel cell technology.
With technology originating from Imperial College, Ceres Power is a world leader in low cost, next generation fuel cells for use in distributed power products that have the potential to bring cheaper and cleaner energy to homes and businesses. The Group is working with some of the world’s leading companies in order to create mass market fuel cell products for multiple markets worldwide.
The Company currently manufactures and supplies its fuel cells (“SteelCells”) to partners wishing to use Ceres Power’s technology as the foundation for their power products and offers its integration and engineering expertise as part of joint development programmes.
YASA Motors – P400 Series with Lightweight Gearbox
Integrated Lightweight Electric Vehicle Transmissions
Application example:
YASA P400 Series Motors with lightweight gearboxes.
Xtrac, a leader in the design and manufacture of vehicle transmissions, has a family of highly configurable gearboxes available that address the growing market requirement for single speed, lightweight and power dense electric vehicle (EV) transmissions. Driven by YASA P400 Series motors, the Xtrac P1227 Integrated Lightweight Electric Vehicle (ILEV) transmissions provide up to 3900 Nm and 320kW peak at the wheels from just 95kg for gearbox and two motors combined in a full torque vectoring configuration.
This family of transmissions can be configured into one of the three arrangements shown below.
YASA Motors – Parkwalk closes follow-on investment
We are delighted to announce that the Parkwalk Opportunities Fund and the UK Tech Fund VII have led a funding round in YASA Motors, a spin-out from the University of Oxford. The company aims to commercialise its patented technology in electric motors and generators across a range of product areas.
YASA Motors (YASA) was incorporated in 2009 to commercialise the unique motor topology developed by founder and CTO Dr Woolmer at the University of Oxford. The Yokeless And Segmented Armature design – hence YASA – allows more efficient use of key magnetic and structural materials.
The technology allows YASA to manufacture a range of standard electric motors and generators with superior performance characteristics. In particular the motors are smaller and lighter, are easier to manufacture and produce exceptionally high power and torque. YASA’s standard products are typically integrated into customers’ products for low volume applications whilst the company also carries out bespoke design and development work for OEM customers with high volume applications where the volumes can justify the cost of customisation.
First Light Fusion – £22.7m fundraise
Parkwalk portfolio company First Light Fusion has completed a fundraising of up to £22.7 million.
First Light, a spin-out from the University of Oxford, has discovered new implosion processes that can achieve the high temperatures and compression necessary for fusion reactions and other valuable applications. The Company’s approach has the potential to dramatically shorten the timescale and cost of achieving practical and affordable fusion energy. This fundraising will allow First Light to further develop its modelling tools and experimental capability and will fund collaborations with leading research groups in the field.
The Company has also announced today that it has established a Scientific Advisory Board to provide technical input and governance for its ongoing development programme. The Board is chaired by Arun Majumdar, who is the Jay Precourt Professor at Stanford University, and consists of eminent figures in energy innovation including Nobel laureate Steven Chu, the former US Energy Secretary.
Investors in the financing round include IP Group plc, a fund managed by Invesco Asset Management Limited, clients advised or managed by Sandaire Investment Office and the University of Oxford.
Visit the First Light Fusion website here.
Oxyntix – rebranding as First Light Fusion
First Light Fusion was spun out from the University of Oxford in July 2011, with seed capital from the IP Group plc, Parkwalk and a number of Angel investors.
Until May 2014, the company was named Oxyntix Ltd.
The company was founded by Professor Yiannis Ventikos, who is currently the Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department at University College, London, and Dr Nicholas Hawker, formerly an Engineering lecturer at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.
First Light aims to address one of the world’s largest problems – that energy consumption is expected to increase by 50% by 2030.
Fusion has the ability to produce limitless clean energy, with the hydrogen isotope fuel extracted from water.
Fusion is safe, and no long-lived radioactive waste is produced. Unlike other renewable energy sources, fusion does not need the sun to shine or the wind to blow.
Based in Oxford, First Light Fusion employs directly a team of engineers and physicists, and have made strides forward towards inertial confinement fusion.
Visit the First Light Fusion website here.
