Three university-focused investors take part in Cambridge spinout Aqdot's $7m series A round, providing a boost for its chemical encapsulation technology.
Aqdot, a Cambridge University specialist chemical spinout, has raised £5m ($7m) in a series A round from a consortium of university-focused investors.
The backers included Cambridge Enterprise, the commercialisation arm of Cambridge University; Imperial Innovations, the commercialisation firm spun out of Imperial College London and backed by several institutions across London, Cambridge and Oxford; and Parkwalk Advisors, that invests in spinouts from UK universities.
They were joined by investment firm Providence Investment.
Founded in 2012, Aqdot’s technology enables the creation of tiny droplets that contain active materials such as enzymes for household cleaning products or chemicals for crop treatments. The release of these materials can be finely controlled.
The technology is based on research at Cambridge University’s Department of Chemistry.
In 2014, Aqdot raised £2.55m in an oversubscribed funding round backed by the same investors. The comapny also gained approximately €135,000 ($153,000) through initiatives funded by Climate-KIC, the European Union’s main climate innovation program.
Aqdot also secured approximately £1m in a 2013 seed round from Cambridge Enterprise, Parkwalk Advisors and Providence Investment.
Tim Wright, chief executive of Aqdot, said: “We are delighted to have completed this round of funding, which enables us to progress our products to market.”
Kelsey Skinner, director of technology ventures at Imperial Innovations, said: “Aqdot has taken significant steps forward since the last funding round in particular in customer engagement and application-specific technology development.
“Aqdot has a strong team in place, and we are proud to lead this series A round alongside other leading co-investors to enable the continued execution of the strategy.”
