Structure Vision raises £300,000 to fund ongoing development
Structure Vision Limited, a provider of 3D visualisation software for the industrial and nuclear services sectors, is delighted to announce that it has completed a £300,000 equity financing from both IP Group plc (“IP Group”), the intellectual property commercialisation company, and the White Rose Technology Seedcorn Fund (“WRTSF”), which provides funding for spin-out companies from the universities of Leeds, York and Sheffield.
The Company, which was spun out of the University of Leeds with early stage funding from IP Group, plans to use the new funds to develop and grow the business over the next two years.
Structure Vision provides software and solutions to industries involved with making, using, storing, handling and processing particulate materials. In particular, it specialises in helping clients understand the behaviour of particulate systems under a variety of industrial process and conditions. It is, for instance, an extremely effective tool in relation to nuclear de-commissioning.
Utilising Structure Vision's state-of-the-art 3D visualisation software - DigiPacTM - the Company can accurately create and simulate microstructures of particulate materials and their structural and physical properties to bring an unparalleled level of understanding and knowledge to a wide variety of industrial environments.
Over 70% of industrial products are in particulate form at some stage of their life cycle and the ability of constituent powders to flow through industrial machinery is a key determinant of operational effectiveness. Poor design in manufacturing machinery and processes are responsible for substantial losses in terms of stock write offs, machine downtime and off-specification product. These problems can also impact upon lead times to market in new product formulation .
Bob Ward, chief executive of Structure Vision, said: “We are delighted to have secured this funding from both IP Group and WRTSF which will enable us to continue to grow and develop the business further.”
Ed Coombs of Aberdeen Asset Managers, who manage the White Rose Technology Seedcorn Fund, said: “We are committed to supporting innovation in its early stages and believe that Structure Vision will complement our existing investment portfolio of forward-thinking companies. The team behind Structure Vision have already received positive feedback from its research into the nuclear services industry and is now in talks with key players in the industry with a view to taking DigiPAC to market.”
For further information, please contact:
Structure Vision Ltd
Bob Ward , Chief Executive 07771 911058
IP Group plc 020 7489 5200
Alan Aubrey, Chief Executive Officer
Liz Vaughan-Adams (communications) 020 7489 5206/07979853802
White Rose Technology Seedcorn Fund
Hannah Griffiths (The Partners Group) 01904 610077
Notes for Editors
About Structure Vision
StructureVision Ltd is a software and services company. Their flagship product DigiPAC is a unique 3D modeling technology which allows companies who are involved in the packing of complex particles or objects to analyse the way in which space is optimized during the packing process. Their technology is being used within the Nuclear, Pharmaceutical and Chemical industries providing real cost savings at the project level.
As well as space optimization DigiPAC provides the ability to analyse heat transfer and fluid flow through the packed structure as well as dissolution predictions allowing engineers to perform ‘what if' analysis on the model before going into production and without the need to perform costly and sometimes dangerous manual experimentation.
Their Nuclear product, NuPAC provides engineers within the nuclear industry with the ability to analyse how Intermediate level waste can be best cut and packed to provide
the most optimum methodology for long term strorage. NuPAC provides cutting reports, grout and encapsulation reports and accurate predictions around the number and type of waste containers that will be required. All of which offer a huge cost saving approach to the decommissioning and clean up process.
About IP Group
IP Group Plc is an intellectual property (IP) commercialisation company that specialises in commercialising university technology. Founded in 2001, IP Group listed on AiM in October 2003 and moved to the Official List in June 2006. It has made two acquisitions to date - Techtran, a company set up to commercialise university intellectual property under a long term contract with the University of Leeds, in 2005 and Top Technology Ventures, an investment adviser to early stage technology venture capital funds, in 2004.
The group has formed long-term partnerships with ten universities - the University of Oxford , King's College London, CNAP/University of York , the University of Leeds , the University of Bristol , the University of Surrey , the University of Southampton , Queen Mary, University of London , the University of Bath and the University of Glasgow .
As at 30 June 2006, 44 spin-out companies had been created among the group's university partners. Of those, eight have listed on the AiM market of the London Stock Exchange and there have been two trade sales.
For more information, please visit our website at www.ipgroupplc.com
About White Rose
The White Rose Technology Seedcorn Fund is an early stage seedcorn fund, which invests in exciting new technology emerging from the universities of York , Leeds and Sheffield .
The £9 million Fund provides venture capital funding of up to £250,000 (and above for exceptional opportunities) to enable the transition from promising research work to commercial reality.
Its portfolio of 21 investee companies - one of which is listed on Nasdaq and one on AiM - represents the commercialisation of high quality science and technology combined with professional management teams to produce investor-ready and partner-ready opportunities.
The Fund is owned by the Universities of York , Leeds and Sheffield , and managed by Aberdeen Asset Managers .
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28 September 2006 |