The University of Southampton

£2.2 million funding for ECS spin-out Perpetuum

Published: 21 February 2006
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ECS spin-out company Perpetuum has attracted £2.2 million in further investment. UK venture capital company Quester has committed £1.4 million in funding with additional investment coming from Top Technology Ventures and SULIS, a University Challenge Fund managed by Quester.

Perpetuum produces innovative micro-generators which harvest energy from vibrations, to provide power without batteries or external electrical supplies.

‘The innovative microgenerators convert energy from existing vibrations to electrical energy which then powers monitoring sensors for all types of machinery. These self-powered sensor systems eliminate the need for large batteries or cumbersome electrical wires which can be difficult to access and expensive to maintain,’ commented Roy Freeland, Chief Executive of Perpetuum. ‘The technology addresses the rapidly growing and substantial market for wireless sensor systems used to monitor and control equipment and machinery. This new investment will enable us to complete development of our first commercial products.’

The company which spun-out in 2004 has successfully demonstrated pre-production units in trial installations with three major international customers in military, water utility and petrochemical applications.

The company’s patented technology was developed at the University of Southampton by a team of academics led by Professor Neil White of the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS).

Henry Sallitt, an investment director at Quester, added: ‘This is a very exciting opportunity in what is forecast to be a very substantial market. Perpetuum is a good example of the strong technology coming out of the UK’s leading universities and is indicative of the increasing number of high quality early-stage investment opportunities we are seeing.’

The University of Southampton works with the Universities of Bath, Bristol and Surrey in the SETsquared Partnership, and the SULIS seedcorn fund to create and support new businesses across Southern England. Perpetuum was founded by academics from the University of Southampton with funding from the SULIS seedcorn fund and a fund managed by the University of Southampton and IP2IPO, the intellectual property (IP) company that commercialises university technology.

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