VCs pile into hot hologram start-up
Funding / Materials
Cambridge, UK, 12 August 2005
Smart Holograms Ltd., a Cambridge University spin-off developing a new kind of "instant" sensor technology based on holograms, has won an extra £1.5 million in VC funding - and with it a £500,000 windfall for the university's own spin-off investment fund.
Company Databank
Smart Holograms Ltd.
Where: Cambridge, UK, http://www.smartholograms.com
Field: Diagnostics and chemical sensors, based on hologram technology
Stage: Products in development; some contract and royalty income
Vitals: Founded 2002; Cambridge spin-out; more than £5.5 million raised
Science base: Research with Prof. Chris Lowe, director of Cambridge Institute for Biotechnology
Investors include: Porton Capital, Partnerships UK, Cambridge University Challenge Fund
Contact: info@smartholograms.com
Background
Bibliography on smart holograms
Press release: Porton Capital investment
Press release: University Challenge Fund
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The company, based on research in the lab of Cambridge professor Chris Lowe, has drawn mounting investor interest with its plans for a new generation of easy-use sensors that echo the promise of the "tricorders" of old Star Trek television episodes. It is developing one hand-held device that, it claims, can quickly detect the presence of dangerous pathogens. Another product in development is a set of contact lenses that instantly alert the wearer when blood-sugar levels are too high - a potential boon to millions of diabetics.
The technology uses special polymers, or plastics, that change shape when exposed to a target substance - glucose, for instance. That alters the way the plastic reflects light, like a hologram; and that change can in turn be instantly noticed by the naked eye.
The company used its latest funding as an opportunity to say that it has "delivered our (business plan) milestones on or ahead of schedule". The £1.5 million, from existing shareholder Porton Capital, is made up of £500,000 for completing milestones plus a further £1 million under an option that Porton exercised. The Porton investment comes on top of another £2.25 million invested in the company last February, and pushes total investment to £5.5 million. The company said it will use the money to speed product development and design and install a manufacturing facility. It plans to double its headcount of 30 over the next financial year.
At the same time, the company's progress allowed the university's seed-capital Challenge Fund to sell some of its own shares in Smart. According to Smart, Porton managed a private placement to independent investors of some of the university's shares for £500,000. The Challenge Fund acquired the shares in May 2002, when the company was getting started, and the sale is the fund's first payday from an investment. It has so far invested about £3 million in 17 Cambridge start-ups, and the Smart pay-out lets it spread its money to yet-more companies.
