University of Birmingham tech spin-off attracts new investment
A TECHNOLOGY spin-out from the University of Birmingham has attracted an additional £235,000 funding to ensure its continued growth.
Irresistible Materials (IM) has won the backing of the Technology Strategy Board together with business angels from the United States and UK.
The funding comes as the company is seeing significant achievements in what is achievable in its processes.
It also corresponds with the appointments of Mark Shepherd as Chief Executive Officer and Tim Hazell, of Mercia Fund Management, to the board.
Shepherd is an experienced CEO and has served as a director at plc board level in both commercial and technical roles. He has expertise in commercialising technology through product development and licensing of intellectual property worldwide.
He was inventor/founder and business development director of Xaar plc and subsequently CEO of several technology businesses including 1Limited and start-ups from the University of Manchester and Queen Mary University of London.
IM was created in 2010 to further develop and commercialise the University of Birmingham’s photo-resist technology for the next generation of microchips.
Photoresists are critical materials in the computer chip manufacturing process as they enable chip manufacturers to fabricate ever-smaller features for microelectronic devices.
Beyond 2016 current photoresist technologies cannot be used as these features will be too small for existing polymeric photoresists, hence the need for a new generation of technology.
IM’s solution, based on a unique fullerene material developed at the University of Birmingham, has been successfully demonstrated to meet these requirements and the company has started engaging with the key industry suppliers to evaluate samples.
Shepherd said: “It is an exciting time for Irresistible Materials. The team has made significant advances over recent months in order to prove the capabilities of the technology and enable us to engage further with the major players in the industry. I am looking forward to seeing the company’s developments turn into real products that enable the next generation of semiconductor devices.”
Hazell added: “IM not only has a technology which could be the basis for the next generation of microchips but a highly experienced and capable management team; that’s a pretty attractive background for an early stage technology investor like Mercia Fund Management.”
