STFC spin-out pioneering new generation of laser gas-sensing solutions
30 April 2018 – Oxford — MIRICO today announces it has secured £3.5 million investment and appointed Dr Linda Bell as CEO. The equity investment was led by Longwall Ventures ECF along with STFC Innovation Ltd, UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S) and new investors Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund, a London-based investment fund for supporting disruptive technology.
Linda has spent her career leading and building science-based businesses including PhosphonicS Ltd (exited in 2017), Inca Digital Printing Ltd and before this as the managing director of Servomex Group Ltd (part of Spectris Plc) who make gas analysis instruments for a range of industries. She holds a DPhil in Chemistry from Oxford University, an MBA and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Originally spun-out of the RAL Space Division of the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) in late 2015 with £1M of investment from Longwall and UKI2S, MIRICO produces equipment for high-precision sensing of gases using next-generation laser techniques.
Tighter regulation on air quality and global climate change is driving a growing demand for more accurate, reliable and versatile technology. Furthermore, the growing sophistication of manufacturing processes such as semiconductor fabrications and chemicals processes, requires enhanced measurement capability whilst ensuring up time and minimal maintenance. MIRICO’s core technology can deliver the reliable measurements to meet these global challenges.
The equipment is used in a wide range of applications, including environmental monitoring to improve measurements for air quality and greenhouse gases and in industrial process control where it detects a number of important gas molecules to improve process efficiency and product yield.
Over the past two years MIRICO has developed a prototype system for remote detection of emissions for use in industrial facilities and scientific applications around the world. On the back of successful trials with major clients, this funding will support MIRICO in finalising our products and growing the manufacturing capability. This includes the development of MIRICO’s in situ sensor, the extractive gas analyser.
The completion of this funding opens an exciting new chapter for MIRICO, allowing the company to complete the product development of our current system and build a manufacturing capability to serve its world-wide customer base.
About MIRICO
MIRICO designs, develops and manufactures cutting edge gas sensing solutions for applications that demand high performance and reliability. The company’s laser sensing technology echnology originates from the Science and Technology Facilities Council, an internationally renowned physical sciences national laboratory. MIRICO is applying this technology to better quantify emissions, improve safety, advance cutting edge industrial processes and create new possibilities in the sciences and industrial world. For more information, please visit http://mirico.co.uk/.
About Longwall Venture Partners
Longwall specialises in early stage venture capital for science and engineering start-ups. Based at the Harwell Campus, Oxfordshire, the Longwall team manage three funds, the £30m Oxford Technology ECF, the £40m Longwall Ventures ECF and the £75m Longwall Ventures 3 ECF. The Longwall portfolio has included over 37 investee companies in a range of sectors including cancer diagnostics, next generation DNA sequencing, scientific instrumentation, next generation PV, cancer drug delivery systems, satellite robotics, radar, oil drilling tools and organ transplant perfusion. For more information about Longwall: www.longwallventures.com
About UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S)
Since the Fund’s inception in 2002, UKI2S has been investing in the earliest and riskiest stages to build world-leading companies from world-leading UK science. As a leading ‘patient capital’ investor with more than £330 million private investment leveraged to date, UKI2S invests in promising technology companies that stem out of the UK’s engineering and high-quality science research. UKI2S works closely with its partners — led STFC, BBSRC and NERC, which are all part of UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) and Dstl — and is aligned with the Catapults and Innovate UK to create the best environment for innovation to flourish and in turn, boost the UK’s competitiveness and productivity by commercialising key technological advances in industrial biotech, ag tech, healthcare, medicine, clean energy, materials, artificial intelligence, software and space.
UKI2S’s portfolio showcases a number of ‘world’s firsts’ ambitions and includes two companies named by the World Economic Forum as ‘Technology Pioneers.’ For more information, please visit www.ukinnovationscienceseedfund.co.uk.
About STFC
The Science and Technology Facilities Council, part of UK Research and Innovation, is keeping the UK at the forefront of international science and tackling some of the most significant challenges facing society such as meeting our future energy needs, monitoring and understanding climate change, and global security. The Council has a broad science portfolio including supporting UK work in space and ground-based astronomy technologies and research. For more information, please visit: http://www.stfc.ac.uk/