Imperial College London spinout Microtech Ceramics has received capital from investment firm Kero.

Microtech Ceramics, a UK-based ceramic substrates developer spun out from Imperial College London, today closed a £1.25m ($1.8m) funding round provided by investment firm Kero.

Founded in 2014, Microtech is working on ceramic substrates aimed at the automotive emissions control sector. The spinout is exploiting technology conducted by Kang Li, Benjamin Kingsbury and Zhentao Wu from the Department of Chemical Engineering.

The money will allow Microtech to optimise the design of its substrates and to develop a manufacturing process in collaboration with automotive industry partners.

The spinout will also relocate to newly built facilities in the Loughborough University Science and Enterprise Park.

Kingsbury, chief technology officer at Microtech, said: “Since Microtech Ceramics’ formation, the team has successfully demonstrated a substrate capable of reducing the cost and size of catalytic converters and we believe we can also offer enhanced conversion performance.

“This new tranche of funding also allows us to scale up manufacturing as the company goes into the next stage.”