A COMPANY comprised of two former colleagues has landed nearly £1m of funding to take its water cleaning technology around the world.
CatalySystems has won recognition from a wide range of industrial companies since it was launched three years ago by physicist Neil Foster and manager Irene Allcroft in Scotland.
They moved the business down to Teesside because of its close links with the process and oil and gas industries and have been working up partnerships with big firms.
And now it has raised £960,000 of investment to develop its relationships with multi-national businesses which the pair say will start bringing in bigger firms as well as further develop their technology.
Managing director Allcroft said the money will be used to take on another couple of staff and help the business bring revenues of around £500,000 next year.
She said: “We are working hard to establish ourselves as the principal developer and supplier of advanced reactor systems for water decontamination and reuse. Having taken a leading position in the AOP market, we are competing extremely well against incumbent technologies, giving us an excellent platform to build on.
“This round of investment comes at a good time as we work with large process industry players and third- party corporations to increase adoption and widen our reach.”
CatalySystems uses advanced oxidation process (AOP) technologies to decontaminate water so it can be re-used in an industrial environment. Allcroft said it is more efficient and has much less waste than rival products.
The investment in CatalySystems Ltd, based at the Wilton Centre in Redcar, was corner-stoned by a tranched investment of £666,000 from the Finance for Business North East Technology Fund managed by IP Group plc.
A further £144,000 from the Finance for Business North East Proof of Concept (PoC) Fund, managed by Northstar Ventures, and £150,000 from two angel investors, was also committed across two tranches.
Duncan Lowery, senior investment manager at IP Group, said: “CatalySystems represents the type of business we like to back. They have demonstrated the ability to solve a significant market pain in a very large market with a scalable offering. The management team are highly skilled and committed to the business and have worked with us very collaboratively to ensure the business goes forward on the best footing possible.
“We were also pleased to be able to work with the existing investors who showed their belief in the business by committing to the round as well as welcoming two new angel investors.”
Northstar Ventures’ investment manager, Stephen Price, said: “We have been delighted with the progress that CatalySystems has made since our original investment in early 2011. This further investment is testament to the hard work and dedication of the excellent management team and the progress that has been made.”
