TIDMFIPP
Frontier IP Group plc
19 March 2021
Reach - a non-regulatory announcement
AIM: FIPP
19 March 2021
Frontier IP Group Plc
("Frontier IP" or the "Group")
Portfolio news - Fieldwork Robotics raises GBP675,000 to
accelerate development of harvesting robots
Frontier IP, a specialist in commercialising intellectual
property, today announces that portfolio company Fieldwork Robotics
("Fieldwork" or the "Company") has raised GBP675,000 through an
equity fundraising from existing and new investors.
The proceeds will be used to support development of the
Company's flexible agricultural robot technology for harvesting
soft fruit and vegetables. They will allow Fieldwork to accelerate
scale up of a raspberry harvesting robot to bring it to market. The
funding also means the Company, a spin out from the University of
Plymouth, is able to embark on the development of a
cauliflower-harvesting robot in collaboration with Bonduelle, one
of the world's largest vegetable producers.
In addition to the fundraising, University of Plymouth
Enterprises Limited, the University of Plymouth's commercial
consultancy and contract arm, has converted GBP44,000 of patent
costs into equity. The funding round means Frontier IP's equity
stake in the business is now 22.2 per cent.
An alpha prototype of the raspberry harvester is to enter
further field trials in July this year, subject to COVID-19
restrictions. Fieldwork will then focus on preparing the robot
design for manufacture.
Fieldwork's technology is designed to be flexible and modular so
it can be adapted to harvesting different soft fruit and
vegetables, and the Company is progressing with further
applications for agriculture.
The technology's potential has been recognised by Innovate UK,
which awarded the Company a GBP547,250 Industrial Strategy
Challenge Fund grant in November 2018 to accelerate development of
its technology. This was part of a GBP671,484 project, whose other
partners included the University of Plymouth and the National
Physical Laboratory.
Innovate UK has since awarded a further three grants to the
Company totalling GBP303,000 to accelerate development through the
COVID-19 pandemic and a GBP50,000 Agritech-East Grant from
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority to support the
cost reduction of specific components.
Rui Andres, Fieldwork Robotics Chief Executive Officer, said:
"This fundraising allows us to start the work with Bonduelle and to
accelerate the development of our raspberry harvesting robot. The
investment demonstrates the strong interest in the technology at a
time when growers all over the world are struggling to recruit
labour."
Neil Crabb, Frontier IP Chief Executive Officer, said: "I am
delighted with the strong progress Fieldwork has made despite the
challenges posed by COVID-19. This investment is an important step
forward in allowing the company to achieve its ambitions."
ENQUIRIES
Frontier IP Group Plc T: 020 7332 2338
Neil Crabb, Chief Executive neil@frontierip.co.uk
Andrew Johnson, Communications & Investor M: 07464 546 025
Relations
Company website: www.frontierip.co.uk
Fieldwork Robotics Ltd
Rui Andres, Chief Executive info@fieldworkrobotics.com
Allenby Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser) T: 0203 328 5656
Nick Athanas / George Payne
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, cybersecurity and psychology. A
three-time winner of the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and
Further Education, most recently in 2020 in respect of its
pioneering research on microplastics pollution in the oceans and
its impact on the environment and changing behaviour, the
University 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 135,000
alumni pursuing their chosen careers globally, it has a growing
global presence.
http://www.plymouth.ac.uk
* Research Fortnight Research Power League Table 2014.
About Reach announcements
This is a Reach announcement. Reach is an investor communication
service aimed at assisting listed and unlisted (including AIM
quoted) companies to distribute media only / non-regulatory news
releases into the public domain.
Information required to be notified under the AIM Rules for
Companies, Market Abuse Regulation or other regulation would be
disseminated as an RNS regulatory announcement and not on
Reach.
This information is provided by Reach, the non-regulatory press
release distribution service of RNS, part of the London Stock
Exchange. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution
of this information may apply. For further information, please
contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.
Reach is a non-regulatory news service. By using this service an
issuer is confirming that the information contained within this
announcement is of a non-regulatory nature. Reach announcements are
identified with an orange label and the word "Reach" in the source
column of the News Explorer pages of London Stock Exchange's
website so that they are distinguished from the RNS UK regulatory
service. Other vendors subscribing for Reach press releases may use
a different method to distinguish Reach announcements from UK
regulatory news.
RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms
and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information
contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an
anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services.
For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange
use the personal data you provide us, please see our Privacy
Policy.
END
NRAUWAURAKUOAUR
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 19, 2021 03:00 ET (07:00 GMT)
Frontier Ip (LSE:FIPP)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
Frontier Ip (LSE:FIPP)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024