The £1.1 million funding round has been completed by Imperial Innovations alongside Norner Verdandi, a technology consultancy firm and partner for polymers and materials industries.

Econic Technologies, an Imperial College portfolio company, produces catalysts used in the production of plastics.

Under the terms of the deal Imperial Innovations and Norner Verdandi are committing £550,000 each, with the new funds to be used for research and development purposes as well as scaling up production. Following the investment, Innovations holds a 43.3 per cent take in the business.

On the back of the investment, David Morgan, former executive director at chemicals company Johnson Matthey, has joined the company as chairman while Charlotte Williams, reader in the Department of Chemistry and Imperial College London, on whose research the company is founded, is to become chief scientific officer.

Morgan comments, ‘This funding will allow us to achieve the scale up of production and the investment in research and development we need for the next phase of the business. Having key investors on board, with their knowledge and expertise, makes this an exciting time for the business.’

Susan Searle, CEO of Imperial Innovations, adds, ‘Econic’s technology has the potential to offer a significant reduction in the production costs of a range of polymer materials.

‘We are pleased to be investing alongside Norner Verdandi, whose technology process expertise will be invaluable to the development of Econic’s technology.’

The transaction marks the second of 2012 for Imperial Innovations following its January backing of Cambridge Communications Systems through a £250,000 investment.

Imperial Innovations was shortlisted for Investor of the Year at the New Energy Awards 2011.