Imperial College London’s (ICL) tech transfer unit Imperial Innovations has led a consortium of investors in an £8m ($12.7m) series C for cleantech firm Plaxica.
Innovations provided £3.9m of the £8m total, and will hold a 35% stake in Plaxica upon completion of the investment. Existing backers US-based Invesco, which maintains a 45.6% stake in Innovations, contributed a further £3.9m and UK-based charity NESTA provided the remainder.
The three all contributed to a £5m series B round in Plaxica in 2011, bringing total disclosed venture funding to £12m. Plaxica also lists cleantech firm The Carbon Trust as an investor.
Plaxica was established in 2008 as a spin out of ICL following commercialisation of research into next generation biopolymers. The firm, which is currently based in ICL’s incubator, is developing new types of polylactic acid made from renewable and sustainable resources. The latest round of funding will be used to support the construction of Plaxica’s second demonstration plant as it moves to edge into a polylactic acid market, estimated to be worth £1bn annually by 2016.
Philip Goodier, chief executive at Plaxica, said: “Since our Series B financing in 2011, Plaxica has made great progress. We have built and are now successfully operating the demonstration plant for our Optipure technology. In addition, we have advanced our transformational low cost lactic acid technology to the point where we are on the verge of building a second demonstration plant for this process. Our intellectual property portfolio has expanded significantly and we have high levels of interest in our technology from potential licensees. I would like to thank our investors for the faith that they have shown in the company and our employees with this investment.”
