Dear , 

Oxford Photovoltaics is an Oxford-based technology business, founded in 2010, formed on technology originally developed in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford under Professor Henry Snaith and his academic team of 20 scientists.

Professor Snaith is leading an intensive and wide-ranging programme to develop a thin-film solar cell using a perovskite-structure to enhance solar absorption and conversion. The programme is advancing rapidly with lab cell efficiency of more than 17%, with identified enhancements which should deliver close to 20% efficiency within the next 12 months.

Oxford PV envisages the technology being utilised to enhance the performance of silicon-based solar cells by adding a perovskite layer on top of the silicon to create a tandem cell structure. This is expected to add up to 5% to the efficiency of a 20% silicon cells, taking their performance towards 25%. Future generations of the product will include perovskite-on-perovskite cells, where performance could reach 30%.

This is extremely attractive to Solar panel manufacturers as they strive to enhance current solar cell efficiencies. As a result OxfordPV already has dialogue with the leading commercial companies in the field and is confident that its’ technology is scalable, easy to use and will provide payback to customers of around 12 months.  For OxfordPV, it makes excellent commercial sense to ride with their customers into a large existing market which is already valued at around $100bn per annum, and growing rapidly.

The technology is protected by 19 patent families applied for.  

The Parkwalk investment team first invested in OxfordPV in April 2011, providing capital to develop small-scale organic solar cells. The company raised £0.72m in a funding round with a post-money valuation of £1.6m. Parkwalk invested alongside MTI, Oxford University and a collection of individual angels.

In January 2013 and December 2013 OxfordPV raised further financings in which Parkwalk participated.

OxfordPV has just completed Tranche I of its 'B' round, raising a further £8.0m at an £20.2m pre-money valuation, to finance the continued development of the cells and start commercial sales of the perovskite product. 

The Parkwalk team first committed capital to OxfordPV in April 2011 and has since provided further capital for investment in every funding round. On the basis of the price of the last funding round, the investments have delivered an IRR of 43.1% on the first two investment tranches and 104.6% on the third tranche.

Oxford PV believe the global tandem cell market will be in excess of $100bn by 2023, and the building-integrated PV market a further $10bn. This latest round of funding will help take the technology and the company into close commercial relationships with end customers and help build a position within these very large markets. This technology has huge potential and the Management Team have deep experience at building substantial, profitable and valuable companies for shareholders.

Investment Opportunity

The Science underpinning OxfordPV is ground breaking. As energy generated from solar cells competes, without subsidy, with carbon based fuels, The Tandem solar cells being developed by the OxfordPV team offer the opportunity for the solar energy market to significantly undercut the price of other mainstream energy sources. As such the financial opportunity is substantial and Parkwalk believe that,while there is still technological and commercial risk, OxfordPV could become a significant global company.

There will however be further capital needed to realise this opportunity and it is expected that there will be a further fund raise in 2016 by which point it is hoped that the tandem cell technology will have proved itself in the field and end-customer commercial relationships established.

Management

Dr. David Fyfe, Chairman - Dr. Fyfe’s highly distinguished career has seen him go from setting up and running a research laboratory for the British Steel Corporation to ten years at the helm of Cambridge Display Technology (CDT), a spin-out from the University of Cambridge. 

As Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CDT, he took the firm from a laboratory-based research company, through a NASDAQ flotation, to a sale for US$ 285m to Japanese corporation Sumitomo Chemicals. 

In 2009 he, along with Professor Sir Richard Friend of the University of Cambridge, was awarded the Institute of Physics’ Business and Innovation Medal for guiding CDT to a pre-eminent position in the development of light-emitting polymers and in the development of the technology for flat-panel displays and lighting.  

Prior to taking over at CDT, Dr. Fyfe held a range of high level posts in the chemical and materials industries including President and CEO of US corporate Harris Specialty Chemicals and Vice-President of Tremco Inc., both of which operated in the construction industry.

Kevin Arthur, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, is a highly experienced entrepreneur with 30 years of experience in the semiconductor sector and, most recently, was the founding CEO of QuantaSol Ltd (now JDSU), a designer and manufacturer of concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) cells. 

Kevin has held leadership roles with other start-up and high growth young companies such as Sitel Semiconductor BV (now Dialog Semiconductor) and Si-Light Technologies, where he is a board director. Before his career with the high technology start-up community, Kevin held senior executive roles with Zarlink Semiconductor, Mitel Semiconductor, Raytheon Semiconductor and TRW LSI Products. 

Professor Henry Snaith, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, is a professor in the physics department of Oxford University. He received his Ph.D. in 2004 from the University of Cambridge and undertook his postdoc at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland. His research has been focused on new materials and device architectures for future generation low-cost photovoltaic. Henry's achievements include the first demonstration of “gyroid” structured titania for dye solar cells, the first demonstration of mesoporous single crystals of anataze TiO2 and the recent discovery of high efficiency solid-state organometal trihalide perovskite-based thin film and mesosuperstructured solar cells. He was awarded the Patterson Medal of the Institute of Physics in 2012, and named as one of “Natures Ten” people who mattered in 2013.

David Smyth, Chief Financial Officer, is a highly successful CFO with particular experience in dynamic, high-growth technology companies. Having held board positions in both private and publicly-listed enterprises, he has raised over £4bn in multiple fundraising exercises and delivered impressive shareholder value through two IPOs and two trade sales.

David was most recently CFO at Neul, an early-stage VC-backed company developing software and related wide-area data network technology for the global M2M (IoT) market. During his tenure he led the change from an academically-driven technology start-up to a commercial and operational business. Prior to this he oversaw and concluded the successful sale of Macro 4 plc, following his strategic review of the Group’s options. Previously, David was Director of Strategy and Investor Relations at Orange, the global mobile network operator. David joined Orange when it was a start-up as its 29th employee and was integral to every stage of the company’s success, through its launch, build and rapid growth into a £25bn group.

Dr Chris Case, Chief Technical Officer, joined OxfordPV in April 2014. Chris brings a strong track record of senior technology management to the business. Since 2009, he has been running his own consultancy providing high level strategic technology commercialisation advice to global companies and small companies alike, including Voltaix, Llc, recently acquired by Air Liquide, and Surrey NanoSystems (also an investee company of Parkwalk Advisors).

Prior to this, he spent ten years with BOC Edwards and The BOC Group, latterly part of the Linde Group where he was Chief Technology/Scientific Officer, responsible for driving global technology strategy and R&D for the €8 billion business. 

Chris has a very strong scientific background in patents and IP management and is passionate about realising their commercial value. His experience spans markets across the world including the US and he has worked for a number of companies – from large corporates to small start-ups - to help manage their IP portfolios and broaden their scope of infuence and build successful and profitable businesses.

A well as being extensively published in international press and periodicals, Chris is also a regular speaker and lecturer on integrated circuits and photovoltaics and chaired the interconnect team of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) for more than 10 years.

He began his career as Assistant Professor of Engineering at Brown University followed by 10 years at AT&T Bell Laboratories. He was a Fullbright-Hays scholar at the Université de Bordeaux, and holds an Sc.M in engineering and a Ph.D. in materials science from Brown University. 

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Portfolio news can be seen on our website or by following Parkwalk on Twitter.

This financial promotion is issued by Parkwalk Advisors Limited (Parkwalk), which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.  Investments referred to in this newsletter are not suitable for all investors.  Interested parties are strongly recommended to seek specialist financial and tax advice before investing in any Parkwalk product.  Capital is at risk and investors may not get back the full amount invested. Tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each investor and may be subject to change. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results, and the value of investments may go down as well as up. Projections and forecasts are also not a reliable indicator of future performance. Investments in small and unquoted companies carry a higher risk than many other forms of investment. Any investment in a Parkwalk product must only be made on the basis of the terms of the full Information Memorandum. Parkwalk is not able to provide advice as to the suitability of investing in a Parkwalk product.