Investor: Sofinnova Partners, et al.

Target: Neosens

Equity: €2.5m

Sofinnova Partners led fellow VC houses Capricorn Cleantech Fund and Galia Gestion in a financing round for Neosens. The funding is worth €2.5 million and previous backers ICSO Private Equity and IRDI have also joined the pool of investors in the latest round.

by John Mainwaring

First published in Cleantech magazine, January/February 2008. Copyright Cleantech Investor 2008

Investment firms focused on university-developed intellectual property have been around for some years, but of the several currently quoted in London only two appear to have a significant interest in cleantech: Imperial Innovations and Sigma Capital Group.

Imperial Innovations’ roots are in an organisation called Impel, created by Imperial College London in 1987, which went on to become Imperial Innovations in 1997. Traditionally the company has invested in turning technologies developed at Imperial College into new businesses, but these days it backs intellectual property created at several organisations. Before floating on AIM in July 2006, the company had already generated more than £30 million from spinouts and licences, and had established holdings in 56 technology spinouts. Today, it has stakes in more than 75 spinouts.

UK-based alternative energy seed fund launches at £2m

 First published in Cleantech magazine, March 2007. Copyright Cleantech Investor Ltd, 2007

Imperial Innovations

Verdetech Investments and Imperial Innovations have invested in DUVAS Technologies, alongside the DUVAS management.

First published in Cleantech magazine, May 2008. Copyright Cleantech Investor 2008