A £150,00 Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) deal for Sustainable Marine Energy (SME) is set to bolster the company’s efforts to bring its PLAT-O technology to the market.
The platform technology is said by the company to ‘dramatically’ reduce the costs and commercial risks of deploying tidal energy devices. It reportedly allows access to deeper waters sites where over 60 per cent of the UK tidal stream energy resources are located.
A London Business Angels (LBA) syndicate has led the deal which also includes a £40,000 investment by the LBA SEIS Roundtable Syndicate Fund 2012.
SME will now look to deploy an at sea prototype in the Solent during 2013, as well as expanding its IP portfolio and developing relationships with industrials so that it can eventually achieve a trade sale or technology license agreement exit.
Anthony Davis, commercial director of the technology business, comments, ‘We are delighted to have the support of LBA’s syndicate whose investors are already offering practical assistance over and above the SEIS investment that will release Energy Entrepreneurs Fund Award funds to kick-start our project.
More on London Business Angels deals:
London Business Angels CEO Anthony Clarke says that SME is developing ‘ground-breaking’ technology and has the potential for ‘explosive growth’.
Speaking to GrowthBusiness back in November, Clark said that the angel finance environment has changed during the last five years and moved towards an increasing number of syndicated deals.
‘Why is that,’ he said. ‘Probably because the early stage venture capital market has fallen back quite considerably so the amount of capital entrepreneurs can get from VCs in the UK at the early stage is much smaller.
Commenting on the SME deal, Clark adds, ‘I am particularly pleased that LBA has introduced a lead angel who will bring valuable support to the company post investment and that our LBA SEIS 2012 fund has been able to make its first of six planned investments – indeed investors had to be scaled back given the strong interest in participating in the round.’
