News
May 2010
FreeHand Surgical (www.freehandsurgeon.com) announces that it has raised new funding of £3.25 million and has a strengthened management team to acquire Prosurgics. The aim of the new company is to exploit the laparoscopic (“keyhole”) surgery market in UK and USA which accounts for 2.5 million procedures each year globally. The technology comprises a robot arm that moves the surgical camera and which saves hospitals time and money. FreeHand Surgical’s “disposables” business model ensures an ongoing revenue stream after the robot arm is in place in operating theatres.
New money has come from funds managed by Chord Capital, Hygea VCT and the Norwegian fund Fritas AS. Existing investors include the UK based VCTs, business angels and high net worth individual investors. Significant personal investments have also been made by the management team. FreeHand achieved FDA clearance last year and has been selling its robotic technology into US hospitals as well as the NHS and private hospitals in the UK.
April 2010
Sphere Medical Holding PLC (www.spheremedical.com) announces that it has completed a first close as part of its current £10 million financing, following the issue of 3,696,165 Ordinary Shares at a subscription price of £1.70 each. Sphere welcomes Edwards Lifesciences as a significant new shareholder following its subscription of £2.0 million in the financing. In addition, further investment has been made by a number of new and existing investors, including Siemens, Herald Ventures, a major multinational asset manager, Quest for Growth, Biovest, Artemis, Fritas A/S, Hotbed Limited and individual investors.
February 2010
Chris Stokes, a former director of London & Scandinavian Metallurgical Co Ltd, joins Metalysis (www.metalysis.com) as Commercial Director, as the company embarks on commercialisation of the FFC Process.
February 2010
FreeHand Surgical announces that a prospectus relating to the proposed Takeover Offer to acquire the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of Prosurgics Limited and the Subscription Offer for 82,885,714 Freehand Ordinary Shares at 5p and 7p per share has been approved by the UK Listing Authority, and is available for inspection at the Financial Services Authority's Document Viewing Facility.
December 2009
Whitfield Solar (www.whitfieldsolar.com) completed a £2.7m funding round supported by existing investors, including the Cascade Fund, together with a private syndicate of new investors. Whitfield Solar was incorporated in 2004 with seed investment from the Cascade Fund, as a vehicle to commercialise research work at the University of Reading into low-cost solar concentrators.
December 2009
Prosurgics (www.freehandsurgeon.com) announces the appointment of Mark Kirby as non-executive Chairman. Mark has over 25 years experience in emerging healthcare companies through the development cycle from small enterprises, through to public flotation and beyond. Mark is also Chairman of Glide Pharma, a specialty pharmaceutical company; and of Eykona Technologies, which develops 3D imaging products for healthcare markets.
October 2009
Prosurgics (www.freehandsurgeon.com) announces the first U.S. sale of a FreeHand® laparoscopic camera controller for gynaecologic surgery to St. James Hospital in Chicago Heights, Illinois.
September 2009
GradFutures Ltd completed a funding round with support from the Cascade Fund, the South East Seed Fund and angel investors. GradFutures (www.GradFutures.com) is masterminding a transformation in graduate recruitment. Students and graduates are able to view detailed information about graduate schemes and graduate jobs offered by a wide range of graduate recruiters. They are also able to browse extensive graduate career advice, developed by the Centre for Career Management Skills at the University of Reading.
September 2009
Metalysis (www.metalysis.com) has been named as one of the world’s hundred most promising private clean technology companies in the Global Cleantech 100. Some 3,500 companies were considered before the world’s top 100 were selected as having the potential and likelihood to achieve high growth and high market impact. Metalysis is one of only thirteen firms in the Global Cleantech 100 that are based in the UK and one of very few in the list that is operating in the materials sector.
August 2009
Chord Capital announces the establishment of its third venture investment fund - the Technology Accelerator Fund.
The Fund is set to invest in technology companies that require the capital to accelerate readily marketable products into their marketplaces and drive the businesses to cash break-even.
August 2009
Chord Capital welcomes Peter Osborn and Owen Sennitt as venture partners. Peter and Owen will be focused on helping with the management of Chord Capital’s forthcoming Technology Accelerator Fund.
July 2009
In early July Prosurgics announced a Rights Issue to raise £3.25m to take the company through to cash break-even. By the end of the round Prosurgics had received approximately £3m, with further funds expected in August.
July 2009
A consortium led by Metalysis has won a £1.8m R & D project, part funded by the Technology Strategy Board, to develop the next generation high-value Titanium production.
June 2009
On June 3rd the Prosurgics Laparoscopic robot FreeHand received 510k clearance from the FDA. This allows the company to commence sales activities in the U.S. market.
June 2009
Metalysis announced the appointment of Dr Pelham Hawker as Chairman of the Board. Dr Hawker is a main Board Director of FTSE-100 speciality metals company Johnson Matthey plc.
May 2009
Metalysis announced the successful conclusion of a £5.1m funding round in which all the company’s venture capital partners have invested further funds. The funding will be used to scale-up manufacturing processes.
April 2009
Atraverda Ltd announced a major industrial collaboration to produce the world’s first commercially viable bi-polar lead acid battery. This collaboration between Atraverda and the University of Glamorgan’s Advanced Battery Development Facility has the potential to revolutionise the global battery industry by producing batteries that are 40% lighter, 20% smaller, have a significantly longer lifespan and are environmentally more friendly than the traditional product.
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