TIDMFIPP
RNS Number : 6511Z
Frontier IP Group plc
14 January 2020
RNS
AIM: FIPP
14 January 2020
Frontier IP Group plc
("Frontier IP" or the "Group")
Portfolio news - Fieldwork Robotics secures first equity
funding
Frontier IP, a specialist in commercialising university
intellectual property, today announces that portfolio company
Fieldwork Robotics (the "Company" or "Fieldwork") has raised
GBP298,000 through an initial equity funding round.
The proceeds will be used by Fieldwork to accelerate development
and scale up of the Company's novel robotics technology for
harvesting soft fruit and vegetables. A prototype raspberry picking
robot successfully completed two field trials last year in
collaboration with Hall Hunter Partnership, one of the UK's leading
soft fruit growers.
As part of the fundraising, Frontier IP converted a loan of
GBP48,000 into equity, with GBP250,000 being raised from new
investors. The funding round values the University of Plymouth spin
out at GBP5,048,000, with the Group's 26.9 per cent equity stake
valued at GBP1,355,000. Frontier IP also holds outstanding warrants
on a further 0.74 per cent of Fieldwork's equity. Before the
funding round, the Group held an equity stake of 27.5 per cent,
which was valued at GBP415,000.
The Company is initially focused on developing robots to harvest
raspberries - they are more delicate, more easily damaged than
other soft fruits, and grow on bushes with complex foliage and
berry distribution. Fieldwork, together with the University of
Plymouth, is also developing proof-of-concept robots for other
crops following interest from leading agribusinesses.
Work to date has been supported by a GBP547,250 Innovate UK
grant as part of a GBP671,484 project to develop the multi-armed
robot prototype. Other partners in the project included the
University of Plymouth and the National Physical Laboratory.
Fieldwork was incorporated to develop and commercialise the work
of Dr Martin Stoelen, who splits his work between the University of
Plymouth, where he lectures in robotics and leads the Soft and
Adaptive Robotics lab, and as an Associate Professor at the Western
Norway University of Applied Sciences.
Dr Stoelen has also led projects to develop a cauliflower
harvesting robot systems and a tomato picker, a project run in
partnership with the Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Frontier IP, Chief Executive Officer, Neil Crabb, said:
"Fieldwork has made strong progress in the last year in developing
a robot raspberry-harvesting system ready for commercial roll out.
We are delighted with the support we have received from the new
investors in the Company."
Frontier IP Corporate Director, Rui Andres and Fieldwork Chief
Executive Officer, said: "It's a great pleasure to see the
increasing pace of progress in the robot and the Company. Fieldwork
aims to work with potential customers to bring automated harvesting
to a market suffering human labour shortages."
ENQUIRIES
Frontier IP Group plc www.frontierip.co.uk
Neil Crabb, Chief Executive Officer T: 0207 332
2338
Andrew Johnson, Communications & Investor M: 07464 546
Relations 025
Allenby Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser) T: 0203 328
5656
Nick Athanas / Nicholas Chambers
N+1 Singer (Broker) T: 0207 496
3000
Harry Gooden / George Tzimas
ABout frontier IP
Frontier IP unites science and commerce by identifying strong
intellectual property and accelerating its development through a
range of commercialisation services. A critical part of the Group's
work is involving relevant industry partners at an early stage of
development to ensure technology meets real world demands and
needs.
The Group looks to build and grow a portfolio of equity stakes
and licence income by taking an active involvement in spin-out
companies, including support for fund raising and collaboration
with relevant industry partners at an early stage of
development.
Frontier IP is the commercialisation partner for the University
of Plymouth.
ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF PLYMOUTH
The University of Plymouth is renowned for high quality,
internationally-leading education, research and innovation.
With a mission to Advance Knowledge and Transform Lives,
Plymouth is a *top 50 research university with clusters of world
class research across a wide range of disciplines including marine
science and engineering, medicine, robotics and psychology. A
three-time winner of the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and
Further Education, the University of Plymouth continues to grow in
stature and reputation.
It has a strong track record for teaching and learning
excellence and has one of the highest numbers of National Teaching
Fellows of any UK university. With over 19,000 students, and a
further 9,500 studying for a Plymouth degree at partner
institutions in the UK and around the world, and over 130,000
alumni pursuing their chosen careers globally, it has a growing
global presence.
http://www.plymouth.ac.uk
*Latest Fortnight Research Power League Table (published in
2014).
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END
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