Horizon Discovery – acquires Sage Labs Inc. for $48M
Acquisition makes Horizon the world’s leading gene-editing and translational genomics company
Highlights
· Horizon acquires Sage Labs Inc. for up to $48M (£29M) comprising up to $16M in cash and up to $32M in new ordinary shares
· Acquisition creates a fully integrated and world leading translational genomics platform
· Significantly expands Horizon’s product, service and research offerings providing cost consolidation, and cross selling opportunities into a broader customer base
· Further enhances Horizon’s US footprint and strengthens its US and EU sales force
· Strengthens IP portfolio in CRISPR with exclusive rights for in vivo ZFN applications
· Provides significant additional top line with $4.7M of revenue in the first 9 months of trading to 31stDecember 2013 ($6.3M annualized) post management buy-out from Sigma-Aldrich
· Strong growth through 2014 is expected to transition a $1.6M loss in the 9 months to 31 December 2013, through break-even, to accretive profit contribution in 2015
· Sage had total assets of $14.5M at 31 December 2013 and the business has benefitted from past investment in excess of $25M
Cambridge, UK and St. Louis, MO, USA – 29th September 2014: Horizon Discovery Group plc (LSE: HZD) (“Horizon” or the “Company”), the international life science company supplying research tools and services to organizations engaged in genomics research and the development of personalized medicines, today announced it has agreed to acquire Sage Labs Inc. (Sage) for up to $16M (£9.8M) in cash and up to $32M (£19.6M) through the issue of new ordinary shares. The acquisition of Sage, a world leader in the generation of advanced in vivotransgenic disease models for use in preclinical research, builds upon the acquisition of CombinatoRx in July andmakes Horizon the world’s leading gene-editing company and the go-to company for the provision of integrated product, service and research solutions at all stages of translational genomics and personalized medicine research from sequence to treatment.
The acquisition, which is in line with the stated strategy to build a fully-integrated life science business, provides Horizon with an expanded range of genetically engineered preclinical models, important tools for the discovery and development of medicines targeted to the unique genetic drivers of diseases like cancer. The combined gene-editing platform diversifies Horizon’s overall product and service offerings into adjacent markets not currently addressed, increases its cost consolidation and cross selling potential as well as strengthens its intellectual property portfolio. Sage also provides Horizon with long-term organic innovation opportunities and deep customer relationships within the industry which complement Horizon’s existing business lines.
Sage, a former business within Sigma-Aldrich (NASDAQ: SIAL), was known as Sigma Advanced GeneticEngineering and became Sage Labs Inc. when it was purchased by management and Telegraph Hill Partners in 2013. Sage has benefitted from in excess of $25 million of past investment. The company has 50 employees, a direct US and EU sales force and 43,000 sq. ft. state of the art facilities, enabling the scale-up of Horizon’s product and service offerings through access to new capabilities, capacity and access to new markets.
Horizon will gain exclusive access to ZFN for in vivo model generation and certain exclusive and non-exclusive CRISPR in vivo-related intellectual property (IP) to add to its extensive in vitroIP in CRISPR, ZFN and rAAV, the latter of which is a world-wide exclusive to Horizon. Assets and capabilities acquired include a custom engineered in vivo model development service, an inventory of ready to use in vivo models and an inventory of molecularly annotated patient-derived xenograft (PDx) models and custom development capabilities.
Horizon will focus on expanding Sages’ predominantly US customer base by increasing its presence in Europe, Japan and beyond via access to Horizon’s business development and commercial infrastructure and an almost 1,000 strong customer base.
The acquired business will be known as Sage Labs Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Horizon Discovery Group plc. Horizon will also benefit from adding further strong leadership capability to its world-class management team. Successful serial entrepreneur Dr David Smoller, formerly CEO of Sage, and previously CSO of Sigma-Aldrich and President of its Research Biotechnology business unit, will become Horizon’s Chief Business Officer. Along with Dr Darrin M Disley, CEO of Horizon, David will lead the implementation of the long-term corporate development strategy. Dr Edward Weinstein will become General Manager of Sage and will lead a team with decades of experience in preclinical model development and commercialization.
The Acquisition is expected to complete on 2 October 2014.
Dr Darrin M Disley, Chief Executive Officer of Horizon Discovery Group plc, commented: “The acquisitionpositions Horizon as the world-leader in gene-editing and at the forefront of technological advances in the field of translational genomics. The consolidated offering significantly strengthens Horizon commercially, allowing us to offer product, service and R&D programs to customers engaged at every stage of translational genomics and personalized medicine research from sequence to treatment.”
Dr David Smoller, Chief Executive Officer of Sage Labs Inc., added: “I am excited that Sage has become a part of Horizon’s important mission. Horizon is now the destination for researchers and scientists worldwide to find both in vivo and in vitro solutions to their biological questions. The addition of Sage now positions Horizon as the true leader in genomics and gene-editing.”
Further details of the acquisition
· Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for 10,957,877 consideration shares to be admitted to trading on AIM (“Admission”). It is expected that Admission will become effective and that trading in the new Ordinary Shares will commence on 2 October 2014.
· $15.2 million (£9.3 million) in cash is payable and 10,957,877 new ordinary shares representing $30.4 million (£18.6 million) of the consideration will be issued by Horizon on closing of the acquisition. $0.8 million (£0.5 million) in cash may be payable and new ordinary shares representing $1.6 million (£1.0 million) of the consideration may be issued by Horizon 12 months after the closing of the acquisition.
Revolymer – 6 month results
Business Highlights: Consumer Specialties
Revolymer is pleased to have announced, after the period end on 25 September 2014, the signing of its first commercialisation deal in the prioritised Consumer Specialties business area, namely a global licence of its encapsulation polymer technology to the international chemicals group Solvay. The deal is aimed at expanding the commercial applications of Solvay’s proprietary cleaning and disinfecting active 6-phthalimido-peroxyhexanoic acid, known as “PAP” and commercialised currently by Solvay under the trade mark Eureco(TM). Solvay will make royalty payments to Revolymer on net sales of PAP products incorporating its technology
On 14 April 2014, the Company announced a £0.5 million funding award by the UK’s innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board, to co-fund a 2-year, collaborative research project to develop new, sustainable, high-performance marine fouling control coatings
Continued progress is being made towards commercialisation of a portfolio of other partnered projects based on Revolymer’s proprietary formulations, including laundry and non-laundry cleaning actives, personal care product and ingredient prototypes, and sealants used in the construction industry. Further announcements will be made in the future as projects within this portfolio culminate in commercial deals
Medicated Chewing Gum
As announced on 9 June 2014, a supply and distribution agreement for Revolymer’s nicotine chewing gum products for the United States of America was signed during the period with PL Developments LLC (“PLD”), a leading US manufacturer and supplier of over-the-counter (OTC) healthcare products. Under the terms of the agreement, PLD will be responsible for marketing, sales and distribution of Revolymer’s nicotine gum products within this territory, which is the world’s largest single market for nicotine gum
The Company received, after the period end, confirmation of compliance with the principles and guidelines of good manufacturing practice (“GMP”) from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (“MHRA”), following an inspection carried out in July 2014. GMP Certificates have been issued. This development evidences progress in the EU regulatory approval process for Revolymer’s nicotine gum products.
Management
As announced after the period end on 4 July and 27 August 2014, Dr Kevin Roger Kenneth Matthews commenced as Chief Executive Officer of Revolymer with effect from today, 29 September 2014. Dr Matthews has over 20 years of experience in senior management roles in the chemical, technology and pharmaceutical sectors and will bring significant marketing, strategy and business management expertise, along with a broad technical understanding, to Revolymer’s management team.
Financial Highlights
Cash, cash equivalents and short term investments were £15.2m at the period end (30 June 2013: £19.7m, 31 December 2013: £17.7m), reflecting the remaining significant resources on hand to fund the continued execution of Revolymer’s strategy of commercialising its technology through partnerships with larger industry players
Revenue for the period of £366k (2013: £22k) – after releasing deferred revenue relating to potential Canadian sales returns of £157k (2013: £nil). This revenue is primarily sales of nicotine gum in Canada though a Canadian retailer, a revenue stream that had not commenced in the prior interim period
Gross profit for the period of £139k (2013: loss £254k) – including a stock provision of £30k (2013: £262k). Gross profit for the period before the (non-cash) release of deferred revenue and stock provision was £12k (2013: £8k)
Other operating income for the period of £30k (2013: £166k) – reflecting decreased receipts from potential partners through early stage joint development agreements, as the Company has focused on its own product development
Loss for the period of £2.7m (2013: loss £2.9m) – after making non-cash charges in respect of (i) share based payments to employees of £224k (2013: £95k); and (ii) in 2013 only, £218k primarily relating to the impairment of manufacturing fixed assets used in the production of polymer stock.
Mr Robin Cridland CFO and Company Secretary of Revolymer said: “The signing of our first commercial deal in Consumer Specialities with Solvay is a significant milestone for Revolymer and a validation of our technology in this business area. This deal, together with the announcement of a supply and distribution agreement for our nicotine gum products in the US, demonstrates the commercial progress the Company is now making across all areas of the business. I look forward to further positive developments across Revolymer’s remaining project portfolio under the leadership of our new CEO Dr. Kevin Matthews.”
Tangentix – Follow on Investment
We have recently closed a follow on investment into Tangentix for the Parkwalk Opportunities Fund and a Syndicate.
Tangentix transforms PC gaming by offering free trial, in-game rental and purchase options.
The company’s proprietary algorithms make downloads up to 3x faster, which means that downloads can reach a wider audience, gamers can buy more games, and publishers benefit from deeper links to the customer and stronger margins.
More can be seen here.
Revolymer – signs global licence with Solvay
Revolymer signs global licence to its encapsulation technology with Solvay in the field of PAP products
Revolymer, the British polymer technology company, is delighted to announce that it has signed the first licence in its prioritised Consumer Specialties business area with the international chemicals group Solvay. Under the terms of the deal, Solvay has exclusive rights to apply Revolymer’s encapsulation technology to its proprietary cleaning and disinfecting active ingredient 6-phthalimido-peroxyhexanoic acid, known as PAP and commercialised currently by Solvay under the trade mark Eureco(TM). It is intended that the resultant formulations of PAP will be more stable than existing PAP formats marketed by Solvay, thereby expanding the market for this active into a broad range of fields including cleaning, disinfection and deodorisation in both solid, gel and liquid product formats. The geographic territory of the licence is global, and Solvay intends to target industry segments including laundry detergents and additives and dish wash agents, in the consumer, domestic, industrial and institutional markets. Veterinary, pharmaceutical and other health care applications are also included in the deal. As consideration for the licence, Solvay will make royalty payments to Revolymer on net sales of PAP products incorporating Revolymer technology.
“We are excited to have closed this significant global deal applying our proprietary technology to Solvay’s PAP active ingredient. Solvay’s strategy of improving product performance for its customers is closely aligned to Revolymer’s own business plan, and, with Solvay’s global reach, it is the ideal partner for Revolymer to commercialise its technology in the field of PAP products across broad industries and geographies” said Robin Cridland, Acting CEO of Revolymer.
Microsaic Systems – signs OEM commercial agreement
Microsaic Systems Signs Commercial Agreement with Leading Global Scientific Company to Create New Analytical Instruments based on ‘Triple Quad’ Technology
25 September 2014: Microsaic Systems plc (AIM: MSYS), the high technology company developing next generation mass spectrometry instruments, is pleased to announce the signing of its first OEM agreement for the development of a chip-based mass spectrometer based on its triple quadrupole (‘triple quad’) technology. The agreement is with a leading global scientific company for use in applied markets.
Colin Jump, Chief Executive of Microsaic Systems, commented:
“We are delighted to begin this major new OEM relationship following successful discussions about the application of our chip-based technologies. In general, our innovative technologies and products have the potential to make chemical analysis using mass spectrometry more accessible to lab scientists. Our triple quad technology extends this opportunity further to encompass the analysis of complex samples, and we look forward to a productive relationship with our new partner going forward.”
AQDOT – Follow on Investment
We have recently made a follow-on investment into AQDOT on behalf of the University of Cambridge Enterprise Fund II and the Parkwalk UK Technology Fund V.
AQDOT‘s technology allows for an energy- and raw material-efficient way of manufacturing microcapsules, leading to lower energy consumption and less waste.
Potential applications include encapsulating enzymes in laundry detergents, or encapsulating fertilisers in the agrochemical sector. Microencapsulation is a multi-billion-per-annum industry with established applications in household and personal care, food and agrochemical markets.
Surrey NanoSystems – BBC – Vantablack
How black can black be? See the BBC video here
Horizon Discovery – Interim Results
Interim Results in-line and Panmure reaffirms ‘Buy Rating’:
Interim Results for the Six Months Ended 30 June 2014
Horizon Reports a Strong First Half Positioning the Company for Continued Growth
Cambridge, UK, 23 September 2014: Horizon Discovery Group plc (LSE: HZD), the international life science company supplying research tools to organisations engaged in genomics research and the development of personalised medicines, today announces its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2014.
Corporate highlights
· Completion of IPO on 27 March 2014, raising £37.8 million of new money, net of expenses
· Acquisition of Horizon CombinatoRx on 2 June 2014 for £4.74 million, contributing one month of service revenues and establishing Horizon’s US operations
· Strategic licensing of two key pieces of CRISPR gene editing intellectual property (“IP”) from ERS Genomics and the Broad Institute and an additional piece of rAAV gene editing IP from Stanford University, bolstering Horizon’s portfolio of gene editing IP
· Board strengthened with the appointment of Dr. Susan Galbraith and Susan Searle
· Signed distribution agreements with Haplogen Genomics GmbH and Sirion Biotech GmbH giving access to over 9,000 new cell line and related products
· Established additional direct sales and distribution channels including US, Canada and India meaning Horizon’s commercial offering is now sold in approaching 50 countries
· Awarded Technology Strategy Board grant to develop standardisation for next generation cancer diagnostics of £0.36 million
· Winner of the Emerging Star Award at the European Mediscience awards for publicly quoted companies in the life science sector
Financial highlights
· Revenues of £4.06 million for the six months ended June 30, up 36% (HY13: £2.98 million)
· Product and service revenues of £3.49 million, up 63% (HY13: £2.14 million) driven by strong growth in genome-editing services, discovery research services and molecular diagnostic reagent products
· Leveraged R&D revenues of £0.57 million (HY13: £0.85 million) including service revenues of £0.57 million, up 75% (HY13: £0.33 million) with Cumulative R&D milestones of £158 million, up 27% (FY13: £124 million), no milestone payments anticipated in 2014 (HY2013: £0.52 million)
· Operating expenditure of £4.80 million (HY13: £3.22 million) in line with strategy to invest in R&D, build out commercial channels and corporate development
· Operating loss of £2.55 million (2013: £1.73 million), in line with expectations
· Closing cash and cash equivalents of £33.47 million
Post-period end highlights
· Horizon CombinatoRx continues its strong performance closing a number of sizeable service contracts including a $0.84 million contract with Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development and Commercialisation, Inc.
· Reagent Products division continues its rapid growth profile with new orders in excess of $0.75 million
· New Bioproduction business line closes several contracts worth in excess of $0.30 million plus potential downstream R&D milestones
· Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier, Dr. J. Keith Joung, and Dr. Feng Zhang joined Horizon’s panel of expert gene editing advisers
· COLTHERES translational medicine consortium led by Horizon co-founders Professor Alberto Bardelli and Dr Chris Torrance receives funding extension beyond the initial four year €6 million term
· Horizon continues to look at non-organic growth opportunities that enable rapid scalability of revenues and ability to enter adjacent markets not currently served
Commenting on the interim results, Dr Darrin M Disley, Horizon’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “Over the first half of 2014, Horizon has made progress towards becoming a fully-integrated life science business, strengthening its offering to provide a broad spectrum of products and services from genetic sequence to patient treatment.
“We have continued to invest for growth, focusing on R&D, building additional commercial channels and corporate development. In line with this strategy we have also continued to build our sales, marketing and distribution footprint in European, North-American and Asia-Pacific markets. Our accretive acquisition of CombinatoRx in the US added new capabilities in the combination cancer drug screening market and we bolstered our position in CRISPR IP, further securing our leadership in this space. To help steer the Company through its next stage of growth and development, Horizon added two industry leaders to our Board and added three of the world’s most prominent gene editing technology experts to our Scientific Advisory Board.
“Our financial performance has been in line with expectations and we are pleased to report continued strong revenue growth. Based on our trading performance for the first six months and post-period end, and with revenues weighted towards the second half of the year following the acquisition of CombinatoRx in June, we are confident of delivering a strong performance for the full year.”
Xeros: Positive update on contracts
Xeros Technology Group plc (AIM: XSG), the innovative developer of a patented polymer bead laundry cleaning system with multiple identified commercial applications, is pleased to announce that, following its latest cleaning system contract win, it now counts four out of the world’s top five hotel groups* as customers. According to the 2014 World Hotel Ranking (www.hotel-online.com), IHG, Hilton, Marriott, Wyndham and Choice are the top five hotel groups measured by rooms globally.
As a result, Xeros cleaning systems are now installed, or contracted to be installed, at sites with each of these four hotel groups in the USA, a priority market for Xeros given the increasing scarcity and cost of water in many states. Single or multiple cleaning systems will be in operation with these customers and handling daily demand in busy hotel laundries.
By replacing much of the water with polymer beads, Xeros cleaning systems are saving laundry customers up to 75% of the water, up to 50% of the energy (used to heat water in the washing machine) and up to 50% of the detergent compared to conventional, aqueous washing machines.
Xeros CEO Bill Westwater states:
“Four of the world’s top five hotel groups have now agreed to use Xeros cleaning systems in the USA and we are actively contributing to their achievement of their CSR goals in relation to sustainability. We’ve demonstrated how Xeros technology can bring lasting and meaningful benefits by way of superior cleaning, water and energy reductions and enhanced service through the commercial use of our technology for laundry.
We are highly encouraged by the early adoption of our cleaning systems by these important customers and we look forward to working with them going forwards.”
See more here: www.xeroscleaning.com/investors
Oxford PV’s Perovskite Thin-Film Tandem Layer Boosts Solar Cell Performance By 20%
Oxford PV, a developer of innovative technologies and materials for solar applications, has introduced a new application for its thin-film perovskite technology. The breakthrough is designed to boost the conversion efficiency of existing silicon solar cells by 20 percent — the equivalent of a substantial 3 to 5 percent increase in absolute conversion efficiency terms.
Read the full article here.
Oxtex – University of Oxford Isis Fund I investment
We have recently made an investment in Oxtex for the University of Oxford Isis Fund I.
Oxtex has developed a surgical implant device which addresses the problem created by the lack of sufficient skin in areas requiring reconstructive surgery.
Oxtex received the OBN Bioscience award for Best Emerging MedTech in 2011 and Best New Medtech product in 2012.
Oxtex addresses a significant challenge in reconstructive surgery, namely the absence of sufficient skin in the area where the surgery is taking place. However, skin has the remarkable ability to grow when put under controlled tension leading to the creation of additional skin and associated soft tissue. This is what the Oxtex device exploits. The device is implanted underneath the skin close to the repair site, where it will slowly expand in one direction causing the skin to grow. After the expander has been removed, this “new skin” can then be used in the reconstruction.
Oxtex has developed a self-inflatable tissue expander that enables the creation of additional skin through controlled stretching in a wide variety of anatomical locations. The expander has applications in many areas of plastic surgery (burns/scar revision, breast reconstruction, dental and oral surgery, crossbite correction), as well as the veterinary market (tumour removal). Successful tissue expansion reduces the cost of treatment and is a significant improvement to other alternative forms of surgical reconstruction.
Another Record year for University of Cambridge spin-out investments
The University of Cambridge has broken its early stage investment record for a second year running, approving nine seed fund investments for a total of £2.7 million, an increase on the £2.3 million invested in 2012/13.
“During the past year, returns on investments made by Cambridge Enterprise have gone from strength to strength.”
— Charles Cotton, a member of the Cambridge Enterprise Investment Committee
Read the full article on the Cambridge Enterprise website here, or the Financial Times’ take on it here.
Clean Air Power – letter of intent signed with global truck manufacturer
Clean Air Power (AIM: CAP), the global leader in the development and delivery of compression-ignited natural gas systems and software for heavy duty vehicles, is pleased to announce that it has signed a Letter of Intent to commence the first phase of a production development program for a MicroPilot diesel-natural gas engine for the South East Asian and other markets. This follows the successful conclusion of a funded concept study with a global truck manufacturer (announced on 10 February 2014).
This first phase of the program is targeted to commence in September 2014 and will last 6 months, generating revenues for Clean Air Power of over $3 million. If successful, the program will then enter a second phase with the objective to bring a MicroPilot diesel-natural gas engine for the South East Asian and other markets to the start of production in 2017.
Clean Air Power will continue to be supported by Ricardo as part of the co-operation agreement signed in September 2013.
Commenting on the agreement, John Pettitt, CEO of Clean Air Power, said:
“We are delighted to be moving from the concept phase to the first phase of production development on a MicroPilot diesel-natural gas engine with the potential to deliver a significant improvement in performance and efficiency. Our client is a progressive, global truck manufacturer with a bold ambition for the future application of compression-ignited natural gas engines. Its commitment to move ahead with this next phase demonstrates the quality of our technology and the value that our relationship with Ricardo can bring to OEM partners. Our ambition is to become a global design, development and delivery partner of compression-ignited natural gas engines and we are excited about the potential of this latest success to open the door to other OEMs partnerships.”
Note: a MicroPilot diesel-natural gas engine is a fully interfaced engine system that takes advantage of the Group’s patented MicroPilot technology and modern diesel engine technology so that only very small (i.e. “micro”) quantities of diesel spray (i.e. “pilot”) are needed to ignite a mixture of natural gas and air, delivering levels of performance that are not possible to achieve with existing, retro-fitted Dual-FuelTM system technology.
Microsaic Systems: partnership with Plexus
Microsaic Systems plc, the developer of chip-based scientific instruments, has entered into an agreement with Plexus.
Under the agreement Plexus will provide manufacturing solutions so that Microsaic’s ability to scale up output rapidly is significantly improved.
Colin Jump, chief executive of Microsaic Systems, added, “Outsourcing the manufacture of the 4000 MiD® has been a key strategic aim and we have made considerable investment over the last year to ensure that we are in a position to hand this over to our chosen partner in preparation for production scale up.
“Plexus represents an excellent strategic fit for Microsaic. Its track record and customer base are world class and through this agreement we gain the ability to optimise and scale our manufacturing to meet the increasing demand for our products now and in the future.”
DefiniGEN Joins EBiSC Consortium
DefiniGEN (an investment in the University of Cambridge Enterprise Funds I & II), a leading provider of stem cell life science products and services has joined the European Bank for induced pluripotent stem cells (EBiSC) consortium. The consortium comprises 26 partners, and has been newly-formed with support from the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). The EBiSC iPS cell bank will act as a central storage and distribution facility for human iPS cells, to be used by researchers across academia and industry in the study of disease and the development of new therapeutics. DefiniGEN’s role will be to validate EBiSC iPS cell lines by generating liver hepatocyte cells for toxicology, disease modelling, and regenerative medicine applications.
Read the full article here.
RoadMap – University of Cambridge Enterprise Fund II investment
We have recently made an investment in RoadMap for the University of Cambridge Enterprise Fund II in a first round of financing of £515k. It is envisioned that a further financing round will be required in 12 months.
RoadMap is founded on four patents licensed from the Cambridge Centre for Advanced Photonics and Electronics (CAPE) in the area of silicon wavelength switch technology.
Network operators are facing the triple challenge of increasing capacity to fulfil exploding internet data needs, managing unrelenting downward pressure on Opex and Capex costs, and supporting variable and fast evolving service features and demand patterns that put a premium on network configuration flexibility. This leads to a requirement for very flexible optical switching that can operate at the wavelength level. Conventional switch architectures no longer meet this need as they cannot accommodate next generation 400 Gbps data rates.
The telecommunication industry is also migrating towards ‘flexgrid’ architectures where the capacity of each channel is moderated to satisfy fluctuating demands. Spare capacity freed up by this can accommodate additional or rerouted traffic flexibly and dynamically by matching channel bandwidths to each signal’s required data rate. This advance relies heavily on software based approaches and these have the added benefit of future proofing networks as the software defined network (SDN) can be remotely modified to accommodate changing demand and new service types, protocols or standards. This is all accomplished without hardware network upgrades or physical interventions, thus reducing costs. The market is expanding with new customers (such as Google and Amazon) joining the existing set of Telco’s and carriers.
Flex-grid networking places severe demands on the underlying hardware, especially optical switches within the network known as a Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexers (“ROADMs”) which must be competitive and have good manufacturability whilst being able to accommodate the flexibility and programmable functionality required. Within ROADM the Wavelength Selective Switches (WSS) is the key component. The ROADM market has grown from zero to $5bn since 2002. The market has already chosen RoadMap’s core technology, namely Liquid crystal on silicon (“LCoS”) as the way in which WSS’s will be made as it has several major advantages. It allows nearly all parameters to be programmable and upgraded by software-remotely and efficiently.
University spin-outs
Very interesting interview with Neil Woodford on investing in this ‘undervalued asset class’ can be seen here.
Surrey Nano: UK engineers create world’s darkest material
None more black: UK engineers create world’s darkest material
A radiation-absorbing material developed for space-based applications is finding new applications closer to home.
Vantablack, a so-called ‘super black’ coating from Surrey Nanosystems, combines exceptionally low mass, thermal stability and an ability to absorb 99.96 per cent of incident radiation. Consequently, the coating is suited to applications including apertures, baffles, cold shields and Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS)–type optical sensors.
The material also overcomes limitations encountered in the manufacture of super-black carbon nanotube-based materials, where high temperatures precluded direct application to sensitive electronics or materials with relatively low melting points. This, along with poor adhesion, prevented their application to space and airborne instrumentation.
Read the full article here.
Vantablack has the highest thermal conductivity and lowest mass-volume of any material that can be used in high-emissivity applications. It has virtually undetectable levels of outgassing and particle fallout, thus eliminating a key source of contamination in sensitive imaging systems. It withstands launch shock, staging and long-term vibration, and is suitable for coating internal components, such as apertures, baffles, cold shields and Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) –type optical sensors.
Read the full article here.
Revolymer – appointment of new CEO
Revolymer plc, the polymer technology company, is delighted to announce that it will appoint Dr Kevin Roger Kenneth Matthews as Chief Executive Officer with effect from 1 January 2015. Dr Matthews has over 20 years of experience in senior management roles in the chemical, technology and pharmaceutical sectors and will bring significant marketing, strategy and business management expertise, along with a broad technical understanding, to Revolymer’s management team.
Dr Matthews will join Revolymer from Isogenica Ltd, a business providing drug discovery services to the pharmaceutical industry, where he has served as CEO since 2009. Prior to that, Dr Matthews led the chemical technology company Oxonica as its CEO for 8 years, during which time he completed its AIM listing in 2005 and secured numerous significant partnership deals and M&A transactions. He also is currently serving as non-executive director of the FTSE 250 specialty chemicals company, Elementis plc, a role he has held since 2005, where he has helped to oversee a significant and successful strategic repositioning of the business. Dr Matthews began his career holding a number of increasingly senior roles at ICI, Albright & Wilson and Rhodia. He is a graduate of the University of Oxford, where he was also awarded a DPhil in Organic Chemistry.
“I am excited to have this opportunity to lead Revolymer through the next phase of its development, continuing to identify and deliver on commercial opportunities where Revolymer’s broad polymer technology expertise can provide real and sustainable value in solving customer and industry challenges. I look forward to working with the existing board, management and investors to build Revolymer into a global leader in its markets” said Dr Matthews.
Jack Keenan, Chairman of Revolymer plc, commented “We are very pleased to have appointed Dr Kevin Matthews to the role of CEO at Revolymer. He has the balance of relevant technical expertise and business management experience, including at listed companies, that the Board has been seeking. He has a proven track record of delivering commercial deals in businesses like Revolymer, and we look forward to near-term progress across Revolymer’s business areas under his leadership.”
Dr Matthews will formally join the board of Revolymer as Chief Executive Officer on 1 January 2015, at which point Robin Cridland will resume the role of Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary.
QS World University Rankings 2014/15
The University of Cambridge and Imperial College surpass Harvard University in the latest QS annual ranking of the world’s top universities, with four British institutions in the top six.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) came in at number one, with the University of Cambridge and Imperial College equal second. Harvard cam in at number four and the University of Oxford and UCL were equal fifth.
Kings College London, Edinburgh, Bristol and Manchester universities were in the top 30 and Glasgow, Warwick, Birmingham and Sheffield universities make the top 70.
Posted on September 16, 2014
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