Ilika secures £7m investment

Hants-based

has secured £7m private equity funding for investment in materials R&D programs and capital investments in proprietary materials discovery equipment.

The investment, which increases the value of the company to £39.5m, has been secured from a syndicate of existing and new investors. Follow-on investments from Artemis and Invesco Perpetual, who became shareholders in 2006, were augmented by funds from IP Venture Fund, Nomura International and St Peter Port Capital.

Ilika specialises in the development and application of high-throughput, combinatorial R&D techniques for the accelerated discovery of new materials. The company creates and characterises inorganic materials deposited using either physical vapour deposition or chemical vapour deposition techniques. The company also generates and screens thousands of biocompatible polymers.

‘We are very excited by Ilika’s prospects,’ said Chris Collins, CEO of Nomura Code Securities. ‘The company attracted a lot of investor interest against a backdrop of volatile market conditions, which is testimony to the management team, the company’s valuable portfolio of intellectual property and the commercial agreements it has in place with blue-chip clients.’