State-backed venture capital firm Mercia Fund Management and undisclosed business angels from the US and UK provided the money to Irresistible Materials (IM).

Irresistible Materials, a UK-based materials technology company spun-out from the local University of Birmingham, has raised £290,000 ($400,000) and hired a new chairman, Stuart McIntosh.

State-backed venture capital firm Mercia Fund Management and undisclosed business angels from the US and UK provided the money to Irresistible Materials (IM).

McIntosh was previously president of ASML and said: “Recently, ASML, the largest supplier of lithography tools to the global semiconductor markets, publically announced a significant investment by three of the largest semiconductor companies in the world to support R&D [research and development] programmes necessary to produce the technologies the industry has laid out in the road map for lithography.

“IM has one of these critical technology components for EUV [extreme ultraviolet] chip production.”

David Coleman, head of spin-out portfolio for the University of Birmingham, added: “IM is a great example of the type of spinout company that we develop. It has a unique material, proven to meet a critical need in the semiconductor industry, and a very experienced team in place well backed to undertake the next stages of its business plan.”

IM began operations in 2010 to commercialize novel fullerene materials for applications in next generation lithography after more than 10 years of R&D at the University of Birmingham’s School of Chemical Engineering, Nanoscale Physics Research Laboratory and School of Chemistry that has led to more than a dozen patents covering fullerene materials (pictured) and processes for applications in next generation lithography, including its EUV, electron-beam, and spin-on carbon applications.

Its partners include the University of Birmingham and Nano-C, a fullerene supplier based in the US.