GIBSON INDEX NEWSLETTER – OCTOBER 2016 – Issue 123

Welcome to the UK’s most comprehensive and best-read Newsletter on Small Technology Companies, Academic Enterprise and Latest Innovation

Amid the emotion and fury that now surrounds every step of Brexit, perhaps the most important news to emerge came from a little-known Tory MP Charlie Elphicke.Twas he who revealed the statistics that confirmed ‘Small firms have created 10 times more jobs than bigger companies who battled to keep Britain in the EU’s single market.’The figures logged by the House of Commons library – refuted the claims of the CBI and its chief executive, Carolyn Fairbairn, who had warned that Britain was headed towards a ‘cliff edge’ if it implements a so-called Hard Brexit. Mr Elphicke remarked that SMEs relied least on the single market and they are the organisations which are creating the vast bulk of jobs. While only six cent of British companies export to the EU - but all must comply with EU ‘single market’ legislation. SMEs have apparently created 3.4 million new jobs in the private sector in the past 15 years. Big businesses have created just 323,000 over the same period, according to the Government’s Business Population Estimates 2015. In the past 15 years, the percentage of Brits employed by small businesses has also risen from 55% to 60%. Many of the largest UK firms now employ only a fraction of the number they did 20 years ago. A few years ago, Shell UK closed one of its top three research establishments, the Thornton Research Park, near Chester, dis-employing 500 highly skilled scientists and engineers, with much of the work being transferred to Hamburg. It was where Shell had once produced the fuel and lubricants for Ferrari racing cars.Perhaps the oddest outcome of Brexit has been the rise of the ‘Expert Idiot’, in which the leaders of a very long list of ‘respected’ organisations – Bank of England, CBI, IoD, Chambers of Commerce, the OECD, Oxbridge Universities – made predictions that were not just wrong, but plain ridiculous. The gulf in experience and outlook between the comfy ‘property-finance elite’ in the South East - and the rest of the UK where many struggle to make £12,000pa - is huge. Even the FT and The Economist lost the plot.Scotland has its own fair share, too. Sir Tom Devine, one of Scotland’s leading historians, predicts that Brexit will never happen. Professor John Curtice, of Strathclyde University, said Scotland could swap places with Britain in the EU if there was a vote for independence in a second referendum. He said it was “difficult to deny” that the EU would have the “option” of handing Scotland the UK’s seat in the EU after Brexit under those circumstances. Little does he realise how little Brussels wants yet another hopelessly poor and debt-ridden nation among its flock? Will the elite ever learn? ----------------------------------------------------------

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The Newsletter is compiled and edited by Marcus Gibson, former Financial Times technology correspondent, who has been covering enterprise and innovation for more than 20 years. The

Newsletter content is derived from the wide-ranging news-gathering operation that produces the Gibson Index SME database, which profiles more than 60,000 UK-based technology SMEs.

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COMPANY OF THE MONTH

£5m investment in online TV streaming platform TVPlayer puts it on world stage

The round, led by US media content company A+E Networks and Beringea, will enable TVPlayer to be spun out from its parent group Simplestream. TVPlayer is a live TV streaming service that lets viewers watch programmes online, on mobile and tablet. Simplestream clients include Discovery Networks, Scripps Networks, Box Television, QVC, At The Races and Turner Broadcasting amongst others. TVPlayer has over 99 channels online with TVPlayer, including channels from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, UKTV, MTV, Eurosport, Comedy Central, Turner, Nickelodeon, Box Television, Capital TV, Fashion TV and QVC. Simplestream is planning an international rollout for its TVPlayer OTT platform. The London-based aggregator has received an additional £2 million in equity funding from a consortium including investment capital firm Beringea and AIM-listed YOLO Leisure and Technology plc. Rob Hodgkinson, investment manager at Beringea, who will join the Simplestream board, said: “The success of TVPlayer to date demonstrates there is significant demand for a multi-device aggregator of live TV in the UK market and internationally. We have been impressed by the progress made by Adam Smith and his team and are delighted to support the continued development of Simplestream and TVPlayer.” Its cloud-based Media Manager software is designed to enable broadcasters to stream broadcast content live to any device with minimal latency and gain significant workflow efficiencies through the automated creation of multi-bitrate, multi-platform video files from the live stream. www.simplestream.com

SME NEWS – ENGINEERING, CONSTRUCTION & ENERGY

Rotherham company Iceotope cools data racks with water, not air

The hi-tech firm is based on the Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) in Rotherham, and in late 2016 it launched a new product to take its revolutionary cooling system out of the data centre. Working with the University of Leeds, the firm is developing a new system that reduces the power consumed in data centres by using liquid rather than air to provide cooling, eliminating the need for power-hungry fans. Two years ago the company agreed fundraising of £7m to help further commercialise its innovative cooling solutions. Iceotope’s patented approach sees components encapsulated in 3M Novec, an inert and environmentally sound coolant. From its base in the AMP Technology Centre, the company has now launched a silent, liquid cooled GPU compatible server blade to accommodate high-performance computing components such as graphics cards and media accelerators.

Peter Hopton, founder and technology director at Iceotope, said: “This is a great milestone for Iceotope. By incorporating GPU computing within our unique liquid cooled blade design we’ve added greater expandability and flexibility to our product range and made it possible for users to achieve faster results and undertake more complex analysis at the same time as making significant savings on the amount of floor space and energy used for IT.” www.iceotope.com

New dredger design helps firm remove mass of radioactive sludge from sea bed

Cumbrian-based engineering firm Barrnon Ltd has used its expertise in providing durable trawling gear for fishermen to develop a new technique for removing nuclear waste. The business developed its Bladecutter technology with the help of an Innovate UK award. The dredging system has been used to remove radioactive sludge in large ponds on historic nuclear sites. Removing the sludge demands the same heavy duty dredging gear operating in a harsh environment such as the sea bed. The technology has opened up a worldwide market worth an estimated £100 million. Bladecutter and its improved successor, Bladecutter 2, were successfully used in the decommissioning of Hunterston nuclear power station. Barrnon has since developed a complete suite of innovative nuclear decommissioning equipment, incorporating emerging technologies such as robotics and virtual reality. The company now works alongside engineering giants such as Atkins, Toshiba, TEPCO and IHI Corporation to tackle environmental threats at nuclear sites worldwide – including Sellafield, UK; Fukushima, Japan; and Hanford, USA. Over the years, Barrnon has developed a reputation for great engineering ideas. It started with durable scallop fishing gear – which it still sells to fishermen all over the UK. Its subsidiary company Kapwell Technologies is now applying insight from the nuclear industry to tackle a considerable challenge for the oil & gas sector. From humble beginnings, they are now at the centre of some of the world’s most demanding industries, delivering innovative engineering solutions that get the job done. MD Andy Barr has over 20 years’ experience in product development and has worked across many industry sectors. He’s highly proficient in 3D CAD, and takes the lead design role at Barrnon. www.barrnon.com

TBA Protective Technologies to spend £700,000 on new production unit in Rochdale

It will enable the company to bring the production and testing it previously outsourced to the Netherlands back to the UK. Supported by a £150,000 grant from the N Brown Textiles Growth Programme, plans include creating a cutting-edge facility at their factory site to house new injection and rubber moulds, composite presses and two compounding lines to further develop their production of high performance fabrics.

The new building will also contain a dedicated tank lining section and a separate area for fire research and development which will allow TBA-PT to test and improve products, such as transport seating and fire barriers, on-site. Mark Lineker, general manager, said: “For over 145 years, TBA-PT has been at the forefront of the UK’s industrial textile industry, making numerous advancements in the design, manufacture and fabrication of high performance textiles and products for a variety of demanding applications. This investment will not only secure our place in the field, but will also ensure that the heritage of British manufacturing will continue going from strength to strength.” Back in 2000 TBA Industrial Products became a limited company and incorporated its electro-conductive business, TBA Electro Conductive Products. This became an independent company in its own right in 2003. In the 1980s the first mobile phones, the Orbitels and Ericssons of the telecoms world, were protectively coated with material from TBA. Many more followed. There has also been considerable activity by the firm in aerospace. For example, the supply of crucial EMI/RFI parts for BAe’s Eurofighter. EMI/RFI gaskets in aircraft have also been used around the boxes that house video monitors in the backs of seating. Satellite dishes have TBA coatings; body pads for the medical industry come from the company; and state-of-the-art Voyager Blue identity protection that you can carry in your wallet or purse was introduced as one of the latest strides forward. www.tbaps.com

Oxford PV raises £8.7m in equity round to boost perovskite solar tech development

Oxford Photovoltaics Ltd (Oxford PV) is a pioneering solar technology company that was founded in 2010 as a spin-off from the University of Oxford by Professor Henry Snaith. The company’s team of 37 people, including chemists and advanced materials scientists are on a fast-track to commercialising a new perovskite-based technology. Last year, Professor Snaith was named by Thomson Reuters as ‘the second most influential scientific mind’ in the world. The company believes that this technology will enable cell manufacturers in the $100bn solar power industry to ‘boost the performance of their solar cells by around 30 per cent’, and facilitate new multi-billion dollar markets for the generation of solar power. The new investment, the first part of a Series C funding round, was provided by a combination of new and existing shareholders, the company said. It brings the total equity raised to £21.3m over the past 18 months, with further investments expected before the end of the year, it added. Part of the funding has been earmarked to develop a demonstration line to showcase the technology to manufacturers. Applied as a thin film layer in tandem with an active silicon cell, perovskite can boost solar cell output by around 30%, according to the company’s claims.Oxford PV chief executive Frank Averdung said “Our technology has already demonstrated the efficiency and stability necessary to engage commercially with major industry players and become a key part of enhancing solar energy supply in years to come. This investment will support Oxford PV as we take large steps towards commercialisation.”

www.oxfordpv.com

Ministry of Defence plans for £800m tech programme – and a new ‘Accelerator’

The highly successful Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE), based at Harwell, will lose its name and identity and become subsumed into a new ‘Defence & Security Accelerator’, according to the CDE’s current head of operations Jim Pennycook.In addition, a new Innovation and Research Insights Unit (IRIS) will be set up to anticipate emerging technological trends and assess what impact they might have on UK defence and security. The MoD currently spends up to a fifth of its Science and Technology budget on disruptive capability projects, such as an Unmanned Aerial System with flapping wings that has been inspired by the biology of a dragonfly. Currently in development with Oxford University spinout Animal Dynamics Ltd, the micro-drone has the potential to improve intelligence-gathering in complex urban environments. Another project is investigating the potential of laser weapons to target and defeat aerial threats. For IRIS, individuals and companies will be invited to present their ideas in front of a ‘dragon’s den style panel’, which will see a dedicated fund of £800m dispersed over the next ten years. According to the MoD, the new approach will see the best ideas fast-tracked, with the Ministry taking more risks on cutting-edge technology than previously. Once selected, applicants will work within the Accelerator, a dedicated hub that should speed up the time to market for the best ideas. The MoD claims the new project is designed to ‘transform the creative culture in defence and security, and will fundamentally change the way the sector does business.’ To many the concept of an ‘accelerator’ is passé. Why? The hundreds of hubs set up worldwide in a bid to duplicate the famously successful hothouses of Silicon Valley, including the 100+ in the UK, have all failed to produce results. In future the MoD ‘will launch a prospectus, hold exhibitions, and say how industry can participate’. www.gov.uk/government/organisations/centre-for-defence-enterprise

Controversial space propulsion technology ‘has interest from MoD and DoD’

Roger Shawyer, the inventor of the oft-derided EmDrive propulsion system, designed for high-speed flight in space, has said both MoD and DoD are interested in his long-running, and hitherto much-scorned technology.EmDrive is propellant-less rocket engine that has no exhaust signature and is therefore ‘very stealthy’, but doubts continue about whether it can ever work in practice. It could be useful in spy satellites, as it would enable the military to get close to a target without anyone knowing it was there. Shawyer, 69, is a certified chartered electrical engineer who spent 40 years working in the space and defence industry on UK government defence contracts, primarily for BAE Systems and Matra Marconi Space, now Airbus. EmDrive, short for electromagnetic propulsion drive, uses electromagnetic waves as ‘fuel’, creating thrust by bouncing microwave photons back and forth inside a cone-

shaped closed metal cavity. This causes the ‘pointy end’ of the EM Drive to accelerate in the opposite direction that the drive is going. Electricity converts into microwaves within the cavity that push against the inside of the device, causing the thruster to accelerate in the opposite direction. If theory is proven in practice ‘it could produce enough thrust to blast humans to Mars in just 70 days’. Roger Shawyer is no mad inventor. During his career, he was a senior engineer and project manager for multiple satellite contracts including the Skynet 4 military satellite, the NATO-4 satellite serving NATO and the British Ministry of Defence, and the French Euteselat Hot Bird TV broadcast satellite. Shawyer explains that he was inspired to use a gyroscope to create an electromagnetic thruster after watching Professor Eric Laithwaite’s 1974 Christmas lecture at the Royal Institution. He experimented with the concept in the 1980s in his garage and then told his employers at MMS, but his idea was rejected outright – and was told that his career would suffer if he mentioned it again. Eventually he was told MMS was unwilling to consider any new propulsion concepts for another decade due to the firm’s investment into the Arianne 5 heavy lift launch vehicle, and so in 2001 Shawyer left MMS and decided to go it alone, setting up Satellite Propulsion Research Ltd (SPR), which won a coveted DTI Smart R&D award. An article on EmDrive in ‘New Scientist’ back in Sept 2006, saw a backlash from academics who questioned why the EmDrive was being funded.“The UK MoD agreed to an export licence, and we designed, built and tested a Flight Thruster for use on a test satellite. The thruster gave 18 grams of thrust,” said Shawyer. “All design data was transferred to Boeing and the contract was completed by July 2010. We waited for them to sign the licence agreement, which had been prepared by Boeing’s lawyers and agreed by SPR. However, once we confirmed the test data it all suddenly went quiet, and we have heard no more from Boeing since then.” www.emdrive.com

SME NEWS – ELECTRONICS & TELECOMS

Amscreen Group specialise in wireless, real-time digital signage – profitably

In Feb 2015 it manufactured its 1,000th screen off the production line at its uber-modern facility. With a network of more than 8000 screens and 20 years’ experience in providing M2M and screen solutions, Amscreen are an established global leader in the screen solutions sector. The current partner portfolio includes blue chip retail businesses such as BP, Shell, Tesco and Costa Coffee to Clear Channel. In 2016 Amscreen Group Ltd manufactured a revolutionary new digital phone box for Clear Channel UK. Hundreds of aging phone boxes to be replaced with stunning, British-built phone boxes – the new phone boxes to offer wi-fi and interactive maps to the public. The screens have been designed and built by Amscreen at their factory near Bolton, supporting manufacturing in the UK. By the end of 2016, Clear Channel will have installed over 100 new phone boxes in London. This will rise to up to 500 boxes in London by the end of 2017 – bringing the

number of Adshel Live screens across the country to over 1,500 –further enhancing the UK’s only national roadside digital Out of Home network. Simon Sugar, Amscreen’s CEO said “Over the last year we have delivered more than 1200 screens as part of the Adshel Live network and were now very pleased to be able to extend our partnership with Clear Channel with a ground-breaking new product. We’ve worked closely with the team to design and manufacture an entirely new unit that we’re confident will revolutionise the on-street out of home space.” Amscreen’s portfolio of products range from 24 inch menu boards to 70 inch free standing retail units. All screens are built fit for purpose for chosen environments, including in-window displays as well as exterior deployment. All products offer a stunning canvas for HD video content with an overall focus on service, simplicity of install, maintenance, monitoring, delivery of content and measurement. Amscreen provide a European and Far East production facilities ensuring networks can be rolled across at speed and scale across the globe. Bespoke, modular designs and ease of front door / internal access bring significant install and maintenance efficiencies, it ensures 3G/4G connectivity and ease of integration into existing host systems.www.amscreen.eu

US firm Avery Dennison participates in £18m round for Cambridge’s PragmatIC The $6 billion turnover California packaging and location tech giant joined existing shareholders Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC) and Cambridge tech giant ARM, who also participated in the round. The investment is expected to accelerate the mass deployment of intelligent packaging, with Avery Dennison leveraging the potential of PragmatIC’s flexible integrated circuits (flexICs) in its inlays portfolio. Scott White, PragmatIC’s CEO, said: “Avery Dennison works with more than 10,000 converters, brand owners and retailers worldwide, making them an ideal supply chain partner to deliver solutions based on our unique technology. The funding provides full support for our next stage of evolution, moving from pilot scale production to enable volume manufacturing with the FlexLogIC equipment.” PragmatIC’s ultra low cost flexible electronics are said to enable the potential for trillions of smart objects that can sense and communicate with their environment. Circuits thinner than a human hair are embedded in any surface, introducing interactivity into a wide range of everyday items. At a fraction of the price of conventional silicon chips, PragmatIC’s products enable a vast range of new applications: from intelligent packaging of fast-moving consumer goods, to wireless traceability of documents for security and identification. The company’s growing customer base includes large multi-national customers across a number of sectors, including consumer goods, packaging, security printing and mainstream electronics. www.pragmaticprinting.com

SMEs benefit from UK Quantum Technologies Innovation Fund

At the international Quantum Technologies Showcase, held at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, in London, the winning bids were announced.The fund, run by Innovate UK and EPSRC, will finance projects that link academia and industry to research and translate quantum technologies into new products and services. Companies benefitting include Kromek Ltd, e2v technologies (UK) Ltd, veteran electronics firm Gooch and Housego, one man band Polestar Engineering Ltd, Oxford Electromagnetic Solutions, RedWave Labs Ltd, US subsidiary ColdQuanta UK Ltd, Optocap Ltd and in Scotland five firms won grants: M Squared Lasers Ltd, UniKLasers Ltd, TopGaN Quantum Technologies Ltd, and Compound Semiconductor Technologies Global Ltd. Two overseas quantum companies, ID Quantique and QxBranch, will open UK offices to connect with the UK quantum programme. Exhibits at the event demonstrated the development of 3D cameras; low-cost quantum keys for encryption; gas detectors that can image invisible gases, together with quantum magnetometers that will enable higher imaging resolutions and the ability to image deeper areas of the brain. A recent report on quantum science and its commercial opportunities was issued. It was overseen by Professor Sir Peter Knight, Emeritus Professor of Quantum Optics, Imperial College London, and chair of the Quantum Metrology Institute, National Physical Laboratory. www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/564946/gs-16-18-quantum-technologies-report.pdf

British firm rolls out first African switch from analogue to free digital TV

In 2016 Nigeria will be the first African country to switch from analogue to free digital television – and it is looking to a small British company to roll it out. Although several other African countries – including Rwanda and Tanzania – have migrated to digital and switched off their analogue signals, they work on a subscription model, so consumers have to pay. The Nigerian Government, though, is following the Freeview model pioneered in Britain, and is aiming to get 30 channels into 20m homes via subsidised digital set-top boxes that cost $7.50 (£5.70) each. Viewers will only have to pay for the boxes and a licence fee of $5 a year. “It’s a well-costed model, and the Nigerian government knows it works because they’ve already sold off some spectrum to MTN, a South Africa-based mobile telecoms firm, for $170m,” said Nick Markham, the chairman of Inview Technology, the British company launching FreeTV in Nigeria. “So basically there’s a payback, and this is what we’re telling all the different African governments.” Because about 16 digital channels can fit in the space of an old analogue one, this will mean that a spectrum worth about $1bn is freed up. The government plans to sell it to mobile phone companies to feed Nigerians’ growing appetite for 3G and 4G. The cost of subsidising the boxes and installing transmitters across the country is about $500m, which leaves another $500m profit. Nigeria needs this money to plug the holes in its budget caused by low oil prices and production, the latter caused by armed groups blowing up its pipelines.

www.inviewtechnology.tv

Concurrent Technologies plc launches new processor XMC module

Concurrent Technologies launched a new processor XMC module based on a low power variant of the 6th generation Intel Core family previously known as Skylake-H. Glen Fawcett, CEO of Concurrent Technologies, said “Most of our products are based around the premise that the Intel® processor board is the centre of a solution that scales by adding more boards in a rack or slot type of environment. “This XP B5x/msd module turns that concept around, allowing customers with a signal processing board to add an Intel® processor module for control, storage and display purposes. This makes it simple to create solutions for applications like image analysis and signals intelligence.”Processor XMCs are a form of computer on module with a defined conduction-cooled envelope suitable for use on both custom and open standard based carriers, including VPX and VME. XP B5x/msd is intended for use in long life-cycle applications within the industrial, scientific, defence and aerospace markets, including environments needing rugged solutions. Main connectivity to the baseboard is provided by a single x8 or dual x4 PCI Express® (PCIe®) lane configuration for high bandwidth connectivity. A range of standard I/O interfaces including Ethernet, USB, SATA, RS232, digital I/O and DisplayPort are included to satisfy a variety of configurations. www.cct.co.uk

SME NEWS – IT, SOFTWARE & INTERNET

‘RegTech’ firm FundApps opens its first US office - in New York

Six years ago, CEO of FundApps and former software developer, Andrew White, grew frustrated with the way financial technology dealt with compliance for institutional investors. FundApps was started in a South London bedroom in 2010 and now has 26 staff. Two of the 10 largest hedge funds in the world use FundApps’ services, which monitor over $2tn in client assets every day. RegTech, or regulatory technology, is an emerging sub-sector of fintech. Several high-profile companies have found innovative ways to embrace compliance and regulation with artificial intelligence but few firms get to market or generate revenue. FundApps stands out from the crowd as one of few profitable companies operating in the RegTech space. FundApps has been ‘bootstrapped’, having never needed funding rounds or outside investment. In the summer, FundApps launched its pioneering ‘Rule Commentary’ feature, providing in-depth regulatory discussion from FundApps’ elite compliance community. More than 50% of FundApps clientele are based in North America, which prompted the move to open a second office in New York. www.fundapps.co

Edinburgh’s FreeAgent Holdings becomes one of few fintechs to list on AIM

Software company FreeAgent Holdings Ltd plans an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market for small, growth-oriented companies. Edinburgh-based FreeAgent provides cloud-based accounting software for “micro-businesses,” a term it defines as companies with fewer than 10 employees. FreeAgent CEO Ed Molyneux said “Whatever the market conditions, we think there is a market out there to sell our shares.” FreeAgent, founded in 2007, sells its services through a subscription model and said it currently has about 52,000 customers. It said monthly subscriber revenue, as of the end of September, put it on track for sales of £7.7m, up from £6.8m at the end of its financial year in March. But despite what it said was a gross profit margin of 80 percent, the company lost £1.3m in 2016, according to documents filed with British business registry Companies House. FreeAgent’s float would be the first since LoopUp Group plc, a conference calling platform, went public in August, raising £8.5m. The largest IPO of the past 12 months was April’s £75m listing of Midwich Group plc, which sells audio visual and document-handling equipment to businesses. Freeagent has been financed so far with £9m of private equity and debt from angel investors, a crowd-funding campaign, London-based venture capital group LocalGlobe and private equity firm Innovation Group Investors. Molyneux, who studied computer science at the University of Oxford and flew fighter jets for the Royal Air Force, co-founded FreeAgent after struggling to manage the accounts of his own small defense consulting business. He said becoming a public company was important both to show FreeAgent’s customers that the company was transparent and stable and to attract and retain talented employees, who received stock-based compensation. www.freeagent.com

Improbable named one of ‘Technology Review’s’ Top50 innovative firms in 2016

It was one of only three UK firms to be listed in this year’s most innovative companies around the world in the technology magazine published by MIT in Boston, USA. The Top50 is a coveted accolade, even for serial inclusions such as Philips and Facebook. Improbable’s cloud-based operating system can transform understanding of complex systems in areas such as economics and city management. The company’s SpatialOS, an operating system that provides detailed simulations using the power of thousands of machines connected in the cloud. The system makes it possible to build simulated worlds of unprecedented scale, persistence and complexity. ‘It could transform our understanding of complex systems in areas as diverse as city management, defence, economics and entertainment, and pave the way for a new generation of applications and businesses’, they claim. Earlier, the firm received a $20m investment from Silicon Valley venture firm Andreessen Horowitz. Innovate UK – better late than never - awarded £3.2m to

Improbable, and its partner Immense Simulations, to apply the power, detail and complexity of a simulated world to modelling the connected transport system of the future. Oddly, loss-making London fintech TransferWise Ltd also featured in Top50.www.improbable.io

Software firm Kykloud secures sizeable Department of Education contract

Described as the largest ever schools surveying project in the UK, the North Shields-based business has developed software as a service product which allows the people behind large-scale planning projects to work out not only the construction costs of a building, but also the long-term maintenance costs and environmental impact of the designs. Kykloud’s software will be used by teams of surveyors who will take three years to review the conditions of more than 70,000 buildings in 22,000 schools in England. The project is part of the Education Funding Agency’s (EFA) Condition Data Collection (CDC) Programme, and all of the detailed data collected will then be used by the agency to target condition funding for state-funded schools in need of work. The deal marks a boost for the company, which has become one of the fastest growing property technology business in the North East, having grown from a small start-up in 2011. With a current workforce of 25 it is looking to recruit 10 new software developers in the coming months, as well as testers to its technical team and new employees within sales and marketing. CEO Edwin Bartlett said: “This is one of the most innovative and largest projects of its kind in the UK. Kykloud’s condition assessment and asset management technology will give the EFA the knowledge and data they require to make informed decisions about maintenance and capital spend for years to come.” In 2011, the James Review of Education Capital recommended independent condition surveys on a rolling 20% sample of the school estate, repeating this to develop a full picture of the estate’s condition in five years and thereafter. www.kykloud.com

Warwick University spinout Medherant wins £1.5m from Mercia Technologies

Medherant will use the funding to advance pre-clinical studies of its TEPI Patch, which will seek to provide consumers with up to 24 hours of pain relief. Nigel Davis, CEO of Medherant, said: “These new funds will enable us to move ahead rapidly with pre-clinical studies for our lead TEPI Patch programmes so that we can be ready for testing in the clinic in 2017.” Mark Payton, CEO of Mercia Technologies plc, added “We have worked closely with the Medherant team to create and develop the business and its path to market, with the prospect of ultimately delivering value to our fund investors and Mercia’s shareholders alike. We look forward to supporting Medherant further as they take this innovative delivery system to market,” he concluded. www.medherant.co.uk

SME NEWS – CHEMICALS, MATERIALS & ENVIRONMENT

Plymouth biotech firm Scymaris aims to create more than 80 jobs

Supported by financial backing from Plymouth University and Torbay Council, the planned job creation will be led by Scymaris, a new company that has re-launched the former AstraZeneca Brixham environmental laboratory, situated at Freshwater Quarry in Brixham. Tim Derrington, chief executive of Scymaris said: “Brixham Laboratory is an outstanding facility with a deep history of environmental laboratory testing. We expect strong demand from customers, across Europe, US and Asia based on our ability to uniquely provide direct access to both marine and freshwater laboratory testing services. A number of environmental laboratory tests are generally required as part of the approval process for new pharmaceutical or chemical product.” The company becomes the anchor tenant at the facility, which provides environmental laboratory testing services to the pharmaceutical, agrochemical and chemical industries. The campus, which is owned by Plymouth University, is also currently home to a further 25 businesses. www.scymaris.com

SME NEWS – BIOTECH, PHARMA & MEDICAL SCIENCES

Nottingham’s Exco In Touch Ltd uses mobile phones to manage clinical trials In 2016 the firm climbed from 73rd to 59th place in the Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 league table. Exco InTouch is a provider of digital patient engagement and data capture solutions for clinical research and healthcare providers. The company’s rapid sales acceleration - quadrupled over the last three years - highlights its progress. Pharma is now embracing new technology platforms as a result of the success of Exco InTouch’s robust offerings. With the market for technology solutions within the clinical research and healthcare markets now rapidly expanding, Exco is set for a sustained period of exponential growth. In January 2016 it launched revolutionary Gather product suite, which simplifies the clinical trial process for patients, investigative sites and pharmaceutical companies. The company pioneered the use of mobile technology in the clinical trials industry, increasing retention and compliance through engaging and supporting patients. It has also evolved the market through b (electronic Clinical Outcome Assessments), ePRO (electronic Patient Reported Outcomes), BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and is now defining the full potential of digital health solutions. The company now employs over 150 of the world’s best mobile technology experts at its global sites and its sales are again forecast to expand significantly over the next 12 months. Tim Davis, CEO and founder of Exco InTouch, said “We are working on many more innovations to help support pharma, healthcare and, crucially, patients, over the next 3-5

years. We’re on the cusp of a revolution in this sector and Exco intends to continue to redefine how companies and patients use and engage with technology for the advancement of healthcare.” www.excointouch.com

Oxford spinout OMass Technologies ‘deciphers interactions of membrane proteins’

In 2016 OMass Technologies, an Oxford University spinout, claims it was the first to conquer the challenge of deciphering the interactions of membrane proteins by using mass spectrometry. The company has raised £1 million from Oxford Sciences Innovation to launch the enabling technology platform and has established partnerships with international pharmaceutical and biotech companies to guide their drug discovery programs. OMass Technologies allows scientists to understand binding mechanisms of ‘classic’ small molecule therapeutic drugs, which are still the major focus for most pharmaceutical projects. At the same time it will provide insights into how to design better biologics. It will also offer scientists the ability to interrogate more complex drug targets, including membrane proteins, without the need to ‘denature’ or destroy their 3D structure. Professor Dame Carol Robinson, one of the pioneers of structural mass spectrometry and a founder of OMass, said: ‘Over 50% of approved drug targets are membrane proteins. These proteins are notoriously challenging for structural studies. But the new mass spectrometry methods we are developing here at Oxford allow us to understand the structure of membrane proteins and how they are affected by small molecule binding in much more detail. ‘This means we will be able to offer a new view for drug candidates. We’ll also be able to offer incredibly useful insights into how drugs interact within cells – for instance how they interact with the lipid membrane and how individual lipids influence drug binding, all prior to any pre-clinical or clinical trials.’ OMass CEO Dr Jonathan Hopper said the mass spectrometry methodologies developed were based on 25 years of research and IP from Oxford. The firm will establish an independent state-of-the-art laboratory in Oxford, which will operate in synergy with the research groups at the University of Oxford. www.omasstech.com

Liverpool’s sterilization tech firm EnXray Ltd raises more than £800,000

The funds will support the further development and commercialization of the company’s patent-pending Low Energy X-ray (LEXR) sterilization technology. Founded in 2012 The round was supported by the Northwest Fund for Biomedical, an existing investor, and a new institutional investor, CBC Holdings AB that matched the Northwest Fund’s investment in this round. This equity round, combined with the £2m loan facility made available from the UK Government’s excellent Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative (AMSCI), will enable it commercialize the technology in 2017.

EnXray is focused on commercialising LEXR for use in sterilization. EnXray’s first target market is the medical device manufacturing industry, where our technology will enable companies to manage and control the sterilization of their products (the final critical step of their production process) on-site & on-demand, providing significant benefits to its customers. Ed Cappabianca, CEO of EnXray, said: “The investment came from a combination of existing and new investors, including regional venture funds, a corporate investor and individual investors who have experience of investing in early-stage companies. EnXray also announced that its first prototype unit has been installed at its partner SMS Electronics in Beeston. It is currently being developed into a commercial version for customer demonstrations and validation. EnXray expects to start product sterilization testing for potential customers in Q4 2016. CTO Yuri Udalov is responsible for the scientific development of EnXray’s technology and activities relating to commercial and business intelligence. He is also strategy advisor at Steray VOF, providing consultancy services in the area of engineering physics, and CTO of Eye on Air, leading the development of equipment trace detection in the area of airport security.In June 2016 Tharsus Group, the collaborative manufacturing specialist, was supporting the commercialisation of a ground-breaking medical equipment sterilisation technology, on behalf of EnXray. Currently, devices go through a process of ‘terminal sterilisation’ where products are shipped to a third-party for the process to be carried out before they are returned to the manufacturer for verification. This can add up to two weeks to the production process and significant costs to individual businesses. www.enxray.com

Bacterial infections are the target for micro-SME PBD Biotech Ltd

The firm is working on next-generation diagnostics for widespread and costly animal diseases. PBD Biotech is a new company launched to exploit proprietary technology in the diagnosis of bacterial infections. Using natural biological amplification the company has developed outstanding new technology particularly relevant to the diagnosis of bovine tuberculosis and paratuberculosis. The start-up is claiming its technology can transform bTB, Johne’s diagnostics. Dr Catherine Rees is its chief science officer. Whereas current gold-standard technology can take up to six weeks to establish a result, the PBD technology produces an accurate result within 6 hours and, critically, can differentiate between live and inactive organisms. PBD is currently preparing its testing and manufacturing capabilities for full commercial launch in 2016. Given the global nature of the disease problem PBD is looking for international partners and distributors. Crucially, the technology distinguishes between viable and non-viable organisms and, unlike tests that monitor an immune response, can therefore reliably differentiate between animals carrying live infectious organisms and those that have been specifically vaccinated.

The phage-based platform technology has significant application in veterinary, agriculture and potentially in human health sectors. Infection of livestock with MAP is a significant cause of morbidity and loss of productivity in the agricultural industry. PBD Biotech’s technology has clear utility for detection of both MAP and bovine tuberculosis. Applications are being developed for both the food sector and the agricultural industry, while there are also major opportunities to assist in resolution of the bovine TB problem. In due course the improvements in the new technology may also be applied to further assessment of clinical human TB diagnostics. www.pbdbio.com

CHAIN Biotechnology named as finalist in the Best Business Start-Up Awards

Organised by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (ICheme), the awards included CHAIN Biotechnology Ltd, which was founded in 2014 by Dr Edward Green and Dr Basil Omar. It is based at both Imperial College London and the University of Nottingham. It aims to develop and exploit Clostridiumbacteria for a wide range of biotech applications. CHAIN recruited a team of experts to build an advanced technology platform for Clostridium. Clostridia form a diverse genus of bacteria, typically found in soil and characterized by growth and spore formation under anaerobic conditions. Most strains are safe, easy to cultivate and extremely useful. For example, Clostridium have been used to produce acetone and butanol chemicals, via fermentation, for many decades. These strains are robust, scalable, amenable to genetic manipulation and versatile with regard to feedstock choice and product selection. However, they remain largely under exploited for new products and applications. CHAIN builds on recent advancements in synthetic biology and automation to accelerate fermentation process development using proven Clostridium strains. Collaboration accelerates commercial exploitation across a range of industrial products and applications i.e. nutraceuticals, personal healthcare, pharmaceuticals and fragrances. Back in 2003, Edward Green founded Green Biologics Ltd to further develop and commercialise butanol fermentation, building the Company from scratch into a world leader within 10 years. http://chainbiotech.com

Innovate UK spends UK taxpayers money.. on a ‘Viennese vaccine’?

Apparently Innovate UK has run out of UK firms in which to invest – not surprising given the lamentable management and low quality of its chosen activities.. It quietly decided to invest in Themis Bioscience GmbH, a Vienna-based specialist for vaccine development.It will receive £1m to support the development of this prophylactic vaccine and the conducting of a Phase 1 clinical trial for a ‘promising Zika vaccine’ candidate.The cash will accelerate the further development of a vaccine candidate against the Zika virus infection and its first clinical trial. The vaccine candidate is based on Themis’

proprietary Themaxyn platform that uses a well-established measles vaccine vector whose core technology has been developed at the Institut Pasteur, France. Dr Erich Tauber, CEO and founder of Themis, said “We recently succeeded in quickly advancing a Chikungunya vaccine candidate into Phase 2 clinical trials and Themis demonstrated its expertise in the fast and focused development of promising vaccines. Thanks to the support of Innovate UK, we can now apply our platform technology for the further development of our prophylactic Zika vaccine candidate, which will address the worldwide emerging Zika threat.” www.themisbio.com

Heavy legal costs hamper future of Manchester’s Premaitha Health plc

Operating losses for prenatal test company Premaitha Health increased to £12.1m (2015: £7.4m) in the year to March 31, as the company battles a patent infringement suit lodged by a US company. The suit is over the developments of its Iona non-invasive prenatal screening test for Downs Syndrome which brought in £2.5m for AIM-listed Premaitha in its first full year of commercialisation. The company incurred £5.8m of legal costs which resulting from a patent infringement suit lodged by American company Illumina, followed by a robust counterclaim filed by Premaitha. Non-executive chairman Adam Reynolds said the litigation had been “a significant challenge for the company in terms of the consumption of managerial time and financial resource. He said: “The board firmly believes in the strength of its case and ultimately this will be resolved in a court of law in the UK in the second half of 2017, unless our opponents see sense in the meantime. “Depending on the outcome of that case the Court has indicated a preparedness to consider an action by the company to pursue an anti-trust case against Illumina. The board believes it has substantive evidence to support its claims.” Early £13.0m investments were secured in the period, including a £8m placing in July 2015, and an investment of £5m from Thermo Fisher in loans and warrants in December. A further £4m loan from Thermo Fisher was forthcoming post period in September. CEO Dr Stephen Little is a successful serial biotechnology entrepreneur. He is the former CEO of DxS, an innovator in the field of personalised medicine, developing and manufacturing companion diagnostics. DxS was funded with £3.5m in 2001 and was sold to Qiagen BV in 2009 for £85m.www.premaitha.com

Hansa Medical AB buys Oxford University spinout Immago Biosystems Ltd

The latter is focused on the enhancement of antibody based cancer therapies using antibody-modulating enzymes. The founders of Immago, Dr Chris Scanlan and Dr Max Crispin at the Glycoprotein Therapeutics Laboratory, at the University of Oxford, have

discovered that IgG-antibody modulating enzymes can enhance the efficacy of antibody based cancer treatments. Together with their colleague, Dr Kavitha Baruah, they formed Immago to help bring these concepts to the clinic. Immago Biosystems has applied for patent protection for this concept. Hansa Medical recently verified the research findings by combining its lead candidate IdeS with approved anti-cancer antibodies in preclinical cancer models, and has applied for further patent protection in this area. The founders of Immago invented ‘receptor refocusing’ which aims to enhances immune-mediated killing of cancer cells by modulating the endogenous antibody repertoire with enzymes such as IdeS and EndoS. Dr Scanlan died from cancer in 2013, aged just 35. Dr Scanlan made seminal contributions to immunology and the global effort to develop an HIV vaccine, with one of his key papers attracting over 650 citations. His later work focused on biotherapeutics against cancer. Dr Christian Kjellman, Senior VP at Hansa Medical AB, said “Our verification of the research findings by Immago has encouraged us to further examine the potential of IdeS and EndoS within cancer immunotherapy. Although the findings are to be regarded as early preclinical research findings, we believe that this concept can hold significant potential for IdeS and EndoS in addition to the focus of our current clinical program in transplantation and autoimmunity.”www.immago.co.uk

Scottish cell signalling upstart Mironid raises £4.3m in Series A funding round

Less than a year after being spun out of University of Strathclyde, the money will help support the Glasgow biotech’s early-stage research and preclinical development. The biotech’s research aims to dial up and down the activity of key cell signalling enzymes to rebalance aberrant signals that drive different disease states. The funding round was led by Epidarex Capital with the Scottish Investment Bank. The company currently develops drug candidate molecules by modulating the activity of key phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) enzymes. Its founders include Professor Miles Houslay, who has spent over 30 years investigating the mechanisms of PDE biology while consulting big pharmas. Mironid is developing its drug discovery pipeline to include ShoLo compounds for the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases and LoAc compounds for the treatment of degenerative kidney disease and cancer. Dr Paul Rodgers, chairman at Mironid, said: “The founders of Mironid have a unique blend of high calibre multidisciplinary industrial experience combined with top tier academic expertise in cell signalling research. The funds raised will allow the rapid acceleration of the company’s programmes to enable further product pipeline development.” www.mironid.com

Investors fund Norfolk and Norwich Hospital’s first spinout - Ablatus Therapeutics

Business angels group Anglia Capital, the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership, and the Low Carbon Innovation Fund have invested in the firm. The money will support development of the company’s product for treating cancer patients and ultimately saving lives. The product is an advancement of the current radiofrequency ablation (RFA) used to ‘burn away’ tumours and other dysfunctional tissue. In addition to AC current in the needle, the Ablatus’ technology, termed ‘Bimodal Electric Tissue Abalation’ (BETA), also uses DC current. This attracts moisture and reduces charring and dehydration and therefore recurrence, which was almost 50% with previous methods. BETA also improves the ablation zone size and has the potential to treat previously untreatable tumours, making this an innovative product with a real impact on society. The technique was developed at the Norwich and Norfolk Hospital which retains a significant equity stake in the business. Anglia Capital Group, sister company to Cambridge Capital Group, has a membership of angel investors who invest in businesses in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Contact: Ablatus Therapeutics Ltd - 01223 928 040.

FINTECH & CONSUMER SMEs

SME credit supplier Iwoca raises £21 million in debt and equity

The new funding takes Iwoca’s total equity investment to £38 million, following a £12.8 million investment from two German investors, including the venture capital arm of bank Commerzbank. Iwoca, which employs 120 people in the capital, raised £21m of investment from Prime Ventures, as well as existing investors Acton Capital Partners, CommerzVentures, Global Founders Capital, and Redline Capital. The startup, founded in 2011, has also secured a £25 million debt facility with challenger bank Shawbrook. CEO and cofounder Christoph Rieche said: “We’re financing it off our own balance sheet and therefore having debt is quite vital for us to grow our book.” Iwoca lets small businesses get at online credit facility – similar to a business overdraft. Since starting it has lent over £150 million to more than 7,000 businesses. Rieche, a former Goldman Sachs banker, says: “The principle is to understand our customers as fast and efficiently as possible. To be able to make a good and fair credit decision but also at a cost point that enables us to lend to businesses that are significantly smaller than the average bank would lend to.” Iwoca’s typical credit facility size is £15,000, Rieche says, compared to around £90,000 at the banks. It takes just a few hours for a business to get a decision from the company. He said: “We process their cash flow information automatically through integrations that we have with the banks and bank statements they share with us. We have integrations with accountancy platforms, which give us more information about the trading. Information from Companies House, which is also public, and we integrate with payment processing platforms.” www.iwoca.co.uk

Five startups join BMW Group Financial Services’ Innovation Lab

Said to be the first fintech business incubator in the automotive sector, the five are offering a range of services - from opening up entirely new types of leases to consumers, through to tackling the barriers young drivers face - innovations that could revolutionise how consumers own and insure cars in the future. Assistance includes office space at the BMW Group Financial Services head office in Farnborough.The five Innovation Lab finalists are: - Divido - a new approach to car financing; consumers split the cost of important purchases over a long period, using their smartphone in a BMW Centre or at home. - Wrisk - a new take on insurance, centred around people, rather than their things. Bringing motor, travel and home cover together, to offer insurance that is more intelligent and flexible while reducing costs and making life easier. - UKVehicle.com - using big data to identify every car available on the market, to reinvent car sales and make buying vehicles safer and hassle free. - Drover - a car rental marketplace connecting owners and drivers of licensed cars, for use on ride-sharing platforms - Warwick Analytics - a new type of predictive analytics, developed at Warwick University, that aims to make BMW Group Financial Services more efficient by automating data analysis Mike Dennett, CEO of BMW Group Financial Services, said: “Despite being vital for many drivers to access vehicles, the auto-finance sector has failed to innovate in the same way that most other areas of the automotive industry have in recent years. Our industry is ripe for disruption and each startup we’ve selected to enter the Innovation Lab offers the potential to change how thousands of consumers gain access to and use vehicles, and I’m confident that our support will help us both work towards this goal.” www.bmwinnovationlab.co.uk

Phase II of Manchester’s successful TV zone - Space Project – is approved

The purpose-built TV and drama production complex will benefit from a £14m investment package - the hub in West Gorton will be expanded.The latest approval will enable to double in size by 2017. Phase I, by architect PRP, created 125,000sq ft of space, and Phase II will see construction of nearly 92,000sq ft of new buildings for production and related support activities, including a 30,000sq ft stage. There will also be more than 5,000sq ft of offices and green rooms, 10,000sq ft for set construction workshops, and a further 45,000sq ft of business units for the TV production supply chain across the 17 acre site. The production stages have accommodated some of TV’s most popular dramas and comedies including Cold Feet for ITV, Cradle to Grave, BBC Two’s highest rating drama of the year, Boy Meets Girl, and a fifth series of Mount Pleasant.Susan Woodward, founder of the Space Project, said: “Demand for production space is growing rapidly so the planning approval is great news for the city. Building Phase II will help satisfy current and future demand and importantly allow us to accommodate

essential supply chain businesses in a production hub which will develop local job opportunities and drive further growth in the sector.” In its first year it has attracted all major UK producers. Clients include BBC, Sky, Channel 4, Sony Big Talk and Tiger Aspect. The first year saw on-site production activity supporting approximately 250 jobs with an associated GVA (Gross Value Added) benefit to the local economy of £9m. www.thespaceproject.tv

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Steady growth at Edinburgh University processing spinout Particle Analytics

The firm has developed intelligent software that allows organisations across a range of industries to simulate the movement of bulk solids and particles in a more advanced, efficient and cost effective way. The ‘game-changing’ technology enhances the efficiency of the conventional Discrete Element Modelling (DEM) software reducing the time needed for simulations from days to hours. It provides a more advanced and in-depth level of insight into the data produced, improving decision making and reducing design risk. Businesses are able to get products to market faster at a much reduced cost. Having received nearly £300,000 in investment from Mercia Fund Management and a further £150,000 from Old College Capital, the University of Edinburgh’s in-house venture capital fund in 2015, Particle Analytics’ innovative technology has already generated considerable interest from companies involved in a wide range of industrial applications spanning mixing, storage, transport, milling, excavation and soil movement across sectors as diverse as pharmaceuticals, mining, oil and gas, agriculture, manufacturing and construction. Clients include Procter & Gamble, Johnson Matthey, Astec Inc and a number of research organisations. At a launch event on 3rd November the technology and its benefits for business will be showcased. Dr Carlos Labra, CEO of Particle Analytics said “Our software is already delivering significant benefits for the businesses we’re working with, helping them gain greater insights into their simulation activity. Feedback has been resoundingly positive and we look forward to the opportunity to explain the innovation and technology behind our software at the launch.” www.particle-analytics.com

Yet another corporate hit for Imperial College’s prolific Prof Chris Toumazou

DNA Electronics was founded some 12 years ago at Imperial College, having invented a way of detecting protons released during DNA synthesis to enable DNA sequence detection using a standard silicon chip based transistor.This optics-free, label method shifted DNA sequencing from specialised, expensive genome centres into the mainstream of local labs and primary care clinics. In September 2016 DNA Electronics said a division of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) in the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

awarded the company a contract worth up to $51.9 million to develop its sequencing platform for rapid diagnosis in two key applications; antimicrobial resistant infections and influenza. This is the first NGS platform supported by ASPR, with potential in the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases. The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta (CDC) have estimated that more than 2 million people per year in the US suffer antimicrobial resistant infections resulting in 23,000 deaths. The CDC also predicts that a flu pandemic could result in between 89,000 and 207,000 deaths in the US and could cost the economy $71.3-166.5 billion. DNAe’s first product will be a rapid blood-to-result diagnostic system to meet an unmet need in the treatment of serious bloodstream infections leading to sepsis. Sepsis is an area of very high unmet medical need, responsible for over 200,00 deaths per annum in the US, more than prostate cancer, breast cancer and AIDS combined1. In late stage development and testing, the new system is set for commercial launch in 2018. In Sept 2016 shares in Prof Toumazou’s other main commercial interest - audio tech specialist Toumaz Ltd was top London riser on the AIM market, adding 22%, as it unveiled its first design win for its Minuet speaker toolkit. The group’s consumer audio business was chosen by Harman International Industries, the world’s leading provider of wireless home audio devices to power its new Google Cast-enabled wireless home speaker - the JBL Playlist. The Toumaz platform allows manufacturers to develop wireless speakers incorporating Google Cast quickly and cost-effectively. www.dnae.com – www.toumaz.com

£30m advanced materials centre AMRICC opens in Stoke-on-Trent

The Applied Materials Research, Innovation and Commercialisation Company, a ‘£30m advanced materials research facility’ was unveiled in Stoke-on-Trent – ‘to attract a new generation of materials scientists and engineers’. AMRICC is ‘forging links’ with Imperial College London, the University of Manchester and Staffordshire University has somewhat vague intentions and strategy – aiming to ‘develop a pipeline of talent’. Who isn’t?AMRICC was started with support from international materials technology company Lucideon, as well as Stoke-on-Trent City Council and the Stoke–on-Trent and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership. Based alongside Lucideon’s headquarters in Penkhull, AMRICC may become a part of a new hub - the Ceramic Valley Enterprise Zone - being developed on along the A500 corridor in Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle under Lyme. AMRICC is intended to provide a key focal point to attract inward investment and help to address low levels of innovation – and builds on the heritage of ceramics, steel and polymers in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire. www.amricc.com

Queen’s University Belfast spinout Causeway Sensors given £500,000

The spinout is developing nano-structures which may ultimately revolutionise medical technology. Causeway Sensors, which has developed novel chips for sensing applications accompanied with a reading device for the detection and measurement of various proteins and antibodies, is preparing to take the next step in its evolution from an early spin-out to a more mature venture. The equity injection came from the Bank of Ireland’s Kernel Capital Growth Fund, created to help SMEs in the north to accelerate their growth. Founded by academics Dr Robert Pollard, Prof Robert Bowman and Dr John Nelson, the company’s technology emerged from years of research in Queen’s University.The capability to sense the presence of low levels of proteins and their interactions means that Causeway’s technology can be used as a diagnostic instrument across multiple applications including the detection of early-stage cancer and other diseases, food security and drug discovery. Among Causeway’s directors is Dr Hugh Cormican, who as founder of Andor Technology, now part of Oxford Instruments, believes the new company ‘can go global’. www.causewaysensors.com

Founder of Cambridge sensation Solexa starts a second promising company

The Cambridge University professor who invented the world’s most successful technology for reading DNA secured $29m in financing for his latest venture, which is seeking to exploit epigenetics. Shankar Balasubramanian will be aiming to mimic the success of his first company, Solexa, founded in 1998 as a university spinout to commercialise a new superfast way to sequence DNA. Solexa was acquired for $650m in 2007 by Illumina, based in California, which used its technology to become the world’s market leader for reading genes. His new company Cambridge Epigenetix raised the financing from a number of eager venture funds including Google’s GV, Wellcome Trust’s Syncona, Sequoia Capital, New Science Ventures and Cambridge Enterprise. Bobby Yerramilli-Rao, a tech entrepreneur, is chairman. The firm will use Prof Balasubramanian’s recent discovery of techniques for identifying the chemical tags that determine whether or not genes are active in specific cells. The professor remarked: “I realised when founding the company that epigenetics was going to be hugely important in medicine. I realised too how underprovided the epigenetics research community was with good tools and reagents.” www.cambridge-epigenetix.com

AND FINALLY

When the polls first showed a slight lead by Donald Trump in the US election on Friday, November 4th it lead the news globally. Not at the BBC – where its Radio 4 News at 6pm opened its bulletin with.. a story about air pollution in London. While every worthy

scientist knows that blatant exaggeration over UK air pollution figures is obvious – one council in Staffordshire undertook a forensic daily count of air quality. For 364 days of the year the instrument gave a tiny, almost unmeasurable figure of around 3 parts per billion, one single day it suddenly soared to 350ppbn. What could it be? Did an army of diesel trucks arrive, halt, and pollute in the town centre? Er, no. It was November 5-6th – Guy Fawkes night.

As Boris Johnson’s mad series of ‘Superhighways’ destroys the last remaining boulevards in London, crippling traffic flows and misery to millions of travellers – Gibson Index carried out a short survey of the exact numbers of cyclists passing Hyde Park Corner and Marble Arch – with around 300 per morning being logged. If translated across London it would lead to a total of just 30,000 cyclists – or 0.001% of London’s commuting population – or 100th of the number claimed by errant authority Transport for London (TfL). The latest main route to be blockaded by cycle lanes is the Bayswater Road, reckoned to be the fifth busiest in central London. The Outer Circle in Regents Park is next on the list - obliterating one of the most elegant boulevards in the capital. Meanwhile the number of people taking buses in London – sick and tired of waiting in traffic, and the thousands of ricksaws in Oxford St – has fallen sharply. The average number of passengers on a bus outside peak hours is now just six – a fraction of what it was before TfL was imposed on London.

Early evidence of a ramp-up in export initiatives post-Brexit comes from the latest SME Confidence Tracker from Bibby Financial Services. It showed an increasing number of businesses investing in exporting. The report, which tracks SME sales performance, investment intentions and confidence, highlights that while the main focus for investment in Q3 is staff training (35%), a large number of businesses are gearing-up to export. Findings reveal that 15% of SMEs invested in export activity in Q3 this year, compared with 8% in Q3 2015, signalling an increasing appetite among smaller businesses to shrug off Brexit concerns and search for growth beyond their domestic market. One firm, British testing company Intertek Group, said it was on track to deliver full-year revenue growth at constant currency and that it did not expect Britain’s decision to leave the EU to impact its growth opportunities. Intertek, which tests anything from oil to children’s toys to check they comply with regulatory standards, said adjusted pretax profit grew 15.1 percent to £172.5m, helped by strong demand, deals and control on costs. www.bibbyfinancialservices.com/how-we-can-help/about-us/sme-confidence-tracker

A 16-year-old South African student has won the grand prize at Google’s Science Fair for her simple orange peel mixture that could help farmers across her drought-stricken country. Kiara Nirghin of Johannesburg won Google Science Fair’s US$50,000 grand prize Tuesday for her submission ‘Fighting Drought with Fruit’. Nirghin’s innovation combines sundried orange and avocado peels to create a biodegradable mixture that can retain more than 75 per cent of rainwater. She used sunlight and the oil from avocado peels to process her polymer. The innovation came in response to one of South Africa’s most widespread droughts. In all of 2015, regions across the country received only 403

mm of rain on average, 34 per cent below the annual average, according to the South African Weather Service. As farmers’ crops withered and died, many turned to superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) to retain water in soil.

One fifth of research papers on the subject of genetics are marred by errors attributable to Microsoft Excel. A report published in BioMed Central suggested that the errors were caused by Excel’s zealotry in converting numbers into dates. The researchers suggested that the errors are easily made when using Microsoft Excel’s default settings. The problem has been rife since 2004, just three years before it emerged that Excel couldn’t cope with anything involving the number 65,535.

Proof that the British cannot be trusted to take online polls seriously in the wake of the ‘Boaty McBoatface’ saga, in which punters were asked to name a new vessel for the British Antarctic Survey – has come from Oxford Dictionaries. The latter closed its survey for the ‘least popular English word’ a day after it was launched due to ‘severe misuse’ of the feature. ‘Moist’ was in the lead for lists in the UK, US and Australia, then overtaken by ‘Brexit’ then ‘British’, with ‘Islam’ and ‘Israel’ not far behind. A notice on the webpage read: “We regret to inform users that due to severe misuse we have had to remove this feature from our website.”

Brazen fraud is now openly practised in many UK towns by the fringe element of the restaurant industry. Latest culprit is Jimmy’s Restaurants – a chain of buffet-style restaurants that owes more than £500,000 in business rates across the UK. The game is to open up in a new city, take in masses of cash from customers, then close when the bills arrive. Its 500-cover restaurant in Brighton now owes £200,000. It involves a web of bogus operating companies that repeatedly going into voluntary liquidation and re-emerging under a new name, but with the same directors. NI and VAT? Forget it..

When ram-raiders used a digger to trash Steeple Claydon’s village Co-Op, it was forced to shut for three days while repairs took place. Luckily the Co-Op’s duty manager Igor Kanchukovskyi stepped into the breach, arranging for kind hearted staff to deliver bread, milk and biscuits to elderly village residents. Well done, Igor.

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