Week 48 | Graze
The latest entrant to the BVCA’s Nifty Fifty of VC-backed star performers is graze.com, a London-based company that delivers healthy food by post.
Time for another BVCA Nifty Fifty and our penultimate entry. For your viewing pleasure we have Phase Focus, a Sheffield-based specialist in microscopy.
Founded: 2006
Headquarters: Sheffield
Investors: Fusion IP, South Yorkshire Investment Fund, Braveheart Investment Group, Viking Fund, White Rose Technology Seedcorn Fund, The Credit Protection Association
Website: www.phasefocus.com
A spin-out from Sheffield University, Phase Focus is bringing to market a novel software algorithm -the Phase Focus Virtual Lens - that is expected to revolutionise microscopy.
Phase Focus was formed by Biofusion (now Fusion IP) in 2006 on the back of Professor John Rodenburg's invention born out of the University of Sheffield's Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering. The revolutionary technology works by illuminating selected areas of a specimen, recording the diffraction patterns and then processing the resultant images using Phase Focus's sophisticated and proprietary software. The process can generate high definition images of an object without the need for the high quality lenses that account for a significant element of the cost of high-performance microscopes.
Potential applications for the Phase Focus technology lie within the optical, x-ray and electron microscopy markets, which are forecast to grow to US$1.6bn by 2009. The technology has already been demonstrated in both the optical and x-ray frequency ranges and, in principle, is applicable to the entire electromagnetic spectrum, including radar, ultra-violet, infra-red, and terahertz imaging.
The company was launched in 2006 by Fusion IP, the Sheffield University intellectual property commercialisation company. Over the years a host of other VCs have backed the business, raising a total of more than £2.6m. The latest round came in September 2011 when The Credit Protection Association (CPA) led a syndicate of investors that contributed £550,000, with Fusion IP and the White Rose Technology Seedcorn Fund following on their prior investments with contributions of £90,000 and £75,000 respectively.
Phase Focus is led by Dr Ian Pykett. Pykett has 25 years of international experience in the commercialisation of high-tech innovations. After working as a physicist for a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary that was responsible for the US' first clinical MRI scanner, he founded Advanced NMR Systems, which developed an ultra-high-speed MRI technology, an innovation Ian had worked on at university. For this work he was awarded the Rank Prize 1997, which recognises excellence in scientific research. He then joined Intermagnetics General Corporation, a New York-headquartered MRI specialist, where he grew a three-person team into a company that was eventually acquired by Philips for US$1.3bn in 2006. After spending some years advising on innovation commercialisation and intellectual property, Ian was appointed founding CEO of Phase Focus.The latest entrant to the BVCA’s Nifty Fifty of VC-backed star performers is graze.com, a London-based company that delivers healthy food by post.
This week we are featuring Ai2, a Manchester-based biotechnology company developing biocompatible, yet highly active, antimicrobial coatings for use with medical devices.
