Round-up of the latest investments, deals and funding initiatives in nanotech. April-May 2017.
Nanocoatings company P2i has secured £10m funding from Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank. Ady Moores, P2i, stated: “As an internationally-focused business we are particularly looking to expand our presence in Asia, where we already have facilities in Shenzhen and Taipei. Today, nine out of the top ten handset manufacturers come from this part of the world, so it is particularly important that we are able to service this market properly and take advantage of the business opportunities opening up there right now.”
Graphene producer Directa Plus has announced its full year results for the year ended 31 December 2016. Revenue from graphene sales increased by 89% to €0.74 million (2015 revenues excluding MDU – Mobile
Decontamination Units: €0.39 million) (2015 revenues including MDU: €1.39 million). EBITDA* loss for the year increased to €3.7 million (2015: €2.7 million). The company delivered 3.1 tonnes of Graphene Plus (G+) materials (2015: 1.3 tonnes). The company has over 16 active customers (2015: 7 active customers), 8 of which are global players.
Haydale Graphene Industries has entered a memorandum of understanding with Nanospan India to collaborate on developing advanced nano composites for the Indian market.
Nanospan, a graphene application development firm based in India, will work with Haydale to develop composites focused on the defence, aerospace and energy sectors in India.
“We are delighted to have entered into this collaboration. Nanospan have several immediate opportunities in their market sectors and are well positioned to be our partner for joint R&D and promoting Haydale’s products and services in India. If our collaboration with them is successful we anticipate Nanospan developing our Indian centre of excellence,” said Haydale’s CEO Ray Gibbs in a statement.
The MIT Energy Initiative has awarded 10 seed fund grants for early-stage energy research; 10 projects were awarded $150,000 each, for a total of $1.5 million, including “Computational design and synthesis of graphene based fuel forming catalysts.” by Troy Van Voorhis and Yogesh Surendranath from the Department of Chemistry. Graphene producer Saint Jean Carbon has announced that it intends to raise $2.5 million in two private placements. The company already closed the first tranche of the common unit offering with a gross proceeds of $327,500.
The Basel-based pharmaceutical company Novartis has entered into a collaboration with the Canadian biopharmaceutical company Parvus Therapeutics. The agreement will give Novartis exclusive worldwide rights to a lead nanomedicine for type 1 diabetes. Parvus Therapeutics developed the Navacim technology. It is based on nanoparticles coated with disease-relevant peptide-major histocompatibility complexes that alter the behavior of disease-causing T lymphocyte cells.
Plastic packaging waste is one of the largest problems worldwide. The Indian government reacted to this problem by banning certain types of plastic packaging. However, a suitable alternative is not yet available on the Indian market. This offers an opportunity for Bio-Lutions, a company in Hamburg, who just realized an investment of 500,000 Euros from DEG, the German development and investment association. These investments are available as a part of the Up-Scaling program of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Bio-Lutions produces biodegradable packaging and disposable tableware from plant waste, for instance bananas, pineapples or tomatoes. First the plants are dried and then mechanically pulped into micro- or nanofibers. When these fibers are mixed with water, it can be processed in various forms without the need for additional chemical binders. It can be shaped into packaging and disposables.
