Global University Venturing: Imperial leads by Gregg Bayes-Brown, 12 December 2013
Imperial College London’s tech transfer unit Imperial Innovations (II) has led a seed round worth nearly £1m ($1.6m) for Cambridge University spin-out Aqdot.
II, which invested £350,000 of the total, was joined in participation by the university’s own tech transfer unit Cambridge Enterprise as well as investors Parkwalk Advisors and Providence Investment Company. As part of the deal, Kelsey Lynn, director at II, will join the Aqdot board of directors.
Aqdot is developing chemical encapsulation technology which allows tiny droplets to carry active materials, such as cleaning enzymes for detergents and agrochemicals for crops. Funds raised by the seed round will be used to further develop Aqdot’s technology as well as securing new partnerships.
Roger Coulston, co-founder at Aqdot, said: “Instead of licensing to industry, we decided to form a company and to commercialise the technology through active industry engagement. We chose as funding partner Imperial Innovations because of their experience and insight in building high-growth companies based on academic research. We look forward to creating early value with this disruptive and novel technology through a number of partnerships in different industry segments.”
More information on Global University Venturing.