Amantys® Ltd announces the PowerDrive Partnership Programme with leading IGBT Module manufacturers
IGBT Gate Drive innovator establishes collaboration with semiconductor partners to improve power switch system performance
Nuremberg, Germany, May 15th 2013 – Amantys has made a statement of intent by partnering with a number of leading semiconductor manufacturers to collaborate on business and product development, and accelerate the adoption of Amantys Power Insight™, the company’s unique power monitoring technology.
As already announced last week, at PCIM 2013 this week, Amantys is demonstrating the deployment of Amantys Power Insight™ monitoring capability in a live traction application. In the course of this development, Amantys collaborated with Dynex Semiconductor to integrate 4,500Volt IGBT Modules with gate drives from Amantys in the EMEF “Lusogate” modular traction system, currently undergoing extensive system field trials in Portugal.
Further to this news, at the show Amantys is also announcing the launch of two new gate driver products in the Amantys Power Drive™ family of IGBT gate drives. Developed in conjunction with Fuji Electric, the AP12BA2A and AP17BA2A gate drives operate at 1200V and 1700V respectively, with current ratings from 450A to 1400A, for operation with Fuji’s High Power 2-pack (PrimePACKTM compatible) IGBT Modules.
Fuji and Amantys expect to build on the increasing adoption of this package form factor in designs for applications such as wind turbine inverters, solar farm grid tie inverters, and medium voltage motor drives.
Meanwhile, for applications at higher voltage such as High Voltage DC (HVDC) and locomotive traction, Hitachi Europe Limited and Amantys have reached an agreement to promote jointly the combination of IGBT Modules with Amantys Power Insight™ enabled gate drives.
Under this agreement, Hitachi will initially sell Amantys Power Drives at voltages of 3,300V and 4,500V with their IGBT Modules, allowing the customer the benefit of a power subsystem optimised for their own application.
“Early in the development of the company, the management team identified the importance of building close technical and commercial ties with the leading semiconductor players in high power power electronics” said Karen Oddey, Amantys CEO. “Each of these announcements adds a different form of endorsement of the innovative products and solutions the company has brought to the power electronics industry. These are the first in a series of partnerships we are building with the semiconductor industry”.
About Amantys
Established in Cambridge in 2010 as a privately-funded power electronics company, Amantys specialises in the delivery of scalable, cost effective solutions to meet the challenges of designing reliable and efficient power conversion in medium and high voltage applications.
For more information please visit www.amantys.com
Media contacts:
Richard Ord
Amantys Ltd
Tel: +44 1223 652 457
press@amantys.com
Darren Willsher/Richard Lambert
EML Wildfire
Tel: +44 208 408 8000
amantys@emlwildfire.com
Romax Technology delivers the future of wind turbine health management
Industry leading technology combined with wind turbine health management services to increase asset value.
Romax announces the future of predictive maintenance with its fully integrated InSight Health Management Platform – a suite of products and services for the wind industry.
The InSight Platform launch will take place at the AWEA WINDPOWER exhibition and conference in US on May 6th, 2013 and follows on from the launch of its software in April 2012 to include health monitoring services for a full lifecycle management approach.
InSight leverages Romax’s work over the last two decades in drivetrain design, analysis, monitoring and operations and maintenance technical services for onshore and offshore wind farms.
At present, there are many data sources and analytical capabilities, available to monitor different aspects of the drivetrain such as the gearbox and bearings for conditions such as vibration, oil analysis, wind direction and temperature. Romax’s world-leading software and services allow a combination of multi-source data to be unified on a single intuitive software platform. When combined with engineering consultancy and turbine maintenance services to ensure optimum turbine reliability and health, Romax provides maximum flexibility and helps mitigates risk.
This launch signifies the continuous development of InSight in response to an increasing industry need to monitor more than just the drivetrain. This means that failures will be detected up to six months in advance, allowing for preventative correction, rather than a costly, complete deterioration of the components.
Based on over two decades of operating in the industry, Romax has recognized a trend in the phases of wind farm health management maturity and has loosely segmented these phases into three groups – “fire-fighting”, “managed” and “predictive.” The InSight solution enables wind farm owners and operators to evolve from ‘fire-fighting’ through to managed and ultimately to an optimum state of predictive maintenance. The benefits of this are that operating costs are significantly reduced, maintenance and investment planning improved and revenue and energy generation is increased.
The InSight products and services have been active on a number of wind farms around the world with notable benefits.
“Romax Technology has been working with us on the installation of Condition Monitoring hardware at our Bankend Rig site in South Lanarkshire, UK as part of a five year contract to monitor the performance of the wind farm’s 11 Siemens 1.3 MW turbines.
“The Romax solution was selected because we believe that the InSight suite of predictive maintenance tools offers a way to greatly enhance the management of our fleet. The innovative suite of products and services offers advanced and intuitive collation of CMS data into a single dashboard allowing us and Romax to accurately view turbine health.
“We have found their team of engineers responsive and friendly, but more importantly, they offer an unrivalled expertise to allow us to reduce turbine downtime and as a result improve our profitability."
Wilson Renewables
Dr Peter Poon, CEO at Romax Technology said: "This latest version of the InSight software combined with our engineering service team will change the way you view your turbine’s health. We are expanding the value and breadth of knowledge we can provide to our customers through an advanced and integrated system approach that works openly with your existing systems. With our expert engineering knowledge and visibility of turbine health, we can recognise warning signs early enough to reduce downtime, and costs to optimise reliability. At Romax, we believe the future is the prioritised and predictive maintenance and inspections of wind turbines. We’re not just thinking about diagnosis but prognosis in aiming to see the future of wind turbine health, the vision is optimum reliability and limited downtime, a vision we hope will be adopted by all.”
The InSight technology has also had recent success in a new patent achievement for Romax in operating data for Condition Monitoring Systems.
For more press information please contact:
Mirelle Ball, Romax Technology .
Mirelle.ball@romaxtech.com
EMEF deploys Amantys Power Insight™ technology to increase the time trains are on the tracks
Cambridge, England, 25th April 2013 – Amantys® and EMEF (Empresa de Manutenção de Equipamento Ferroviário, S.A), the leading operator in the Portuguese railway maintenance sector, has announced the deployment of Amantys Power Insight™ technology in a traction converter. The deployment is part of a live trial demonstrating an innovative solution developed by EMEF, leveraging the advantages of Amantys Power Insight condition monitoring. The EMEF drive module upgrades the converter from older Gate Turn Off Thyristors (GTOs) to Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) Modules, and uses Power Insight monitoring embedded within Amantys IGBT gate drivers.
Amantys Power Insight is the first commercially available monitoring system for IGBTs. By re-using the existing PWM and fault signals commonly used to control the firing of the IGBTs, Amantys Power Insight monitors the health of a train’s power electronics in real time, and exports critical information to the train management system. To achieve this breakthrough Amantys has developed an innovative solution to the problem of robustly exporting data across the high voltage isolation barrier to the control domain.
Amantys Power Insight has been designed to be used in a wide variety of applications where communications across the isolation barrier presents a challenge, and in the future it can be used to transport data from a variety of sensors including measurements of vibration, shock, and humidity.
EMEF has developed a modular power system for existing locomotives called Lusogate, using 4500 Volt, 1200 Amp rated IGBT Modules from power semiconductor manufacturer Dynex Semiconductor Limited, combined with advanced IGBT gate drivers from Amantys. This system replaces older GTOs in the traction inverter with the IGBT modules, realising significant energy savings and substantial maintenance cost reductions for the train operator.
With this upgrade the locomotive operator can extend its rolling stock track life, reduce operating costs, and gain supply chain flexibility from a broader range of suppliers.
The addition of Amantys Power Insight to this upgrade delivers information from the heart of the power electronics to the train control system, allowing the effective prioritisation of maintenance reports, thereby optimising service schedules around the actual condition of the power electronics, and providing the capability to intercept potential system failures before they cause expensive breakdowns.
"The technology developed by EMEF gives train operators a much stronger range of options for revitalising their locomotive fleet" said Miguel Areias, Head of Systems and Hardware at EMEF. "Amantys Power Insight brings a unique capability which allows us to extend our Condition-Based Maintenance Methodology into the heart of the traction converter to show early signs of failure. By deploying a needs-based maintenance plan, we can free operators from the burden of the onerous schedule-based maintenance plans recommended by locomotive manufacturers, and increase track-time availability of the locomotive by up to 15%."
"In modern society the reliability of power electronics has a dramatic impact on everyday life. At Amantys our vision is that through combining high reliability power electronics subsystems with powerful microprocessor-based monitoring capabilities, we can bring substantial benefits for rolling stock users and operators alike. We are delighted to be working with the team at EMEF, who clearly share this vision" said Karen Oddey, Amantys CEO. "We have been working closely with EMEF to deliver the benefits of Amantys Power Insight in a real traction system, and we are continuing this momentum into broader power electronics markets such as wind turbine converters, industrial drives and High Voltage DC power transmission."
The locomotive trial demonstrates the use of the Lusogate and Amantys Power Insight technology in a very challenging environment prior to full operational deployment. The two companies will demonstrate this system on stand 124, Hall 9 at PCIM 2013 in Nuremberg, Germany on May 14th-16th.
About Amantys
Established in Cambridge in 2010 as a leading independent power electronics company, Amantys specialises in the delivery of scalable, cost effective solutions to meet the challenges of designing reliable and efficient power conversion in medium and high voltage applications.
About EMEF
EMEF – Empresa de Manutenção de Equipamento Ferroviário, S.A., is the primary Portuguese operator in the Railway Maintenance Sector with five main fields of activity:
Heavy Maintenance; Upgrade and Refurbishment processes on Railway Rolling Stock and related equipment; Preventive and Corrective Maintenance; Assembly Inspection, Tests and Commissioning; Freight Wagons Design, Manufacturing and Upgrading and Research & Development.
For more information please visit www.amantys.com or www.emef.pt.
Media contacts:
Richard Ord
Amantys Ltd
Tel: +44 1223 652 457
press@amantys.com
Miguel Areias
EMEF
Tel: +351 211 027 700
press@emef.pt
Darren Willsher/Richard Lambert
EML Wildfire
Tel: +44 208 408 8000
amantys@emlwildfire.com
New Products and Capabilities to Shorten Development Cycle, Reduce Cost, Improve Efficiency and Drive up Quality
16th April 2013 – Romax Technology is enabling a rapid, seamless and lossless workflow for driveline design and development from planning to manufacture. The innovative approach, backed by a series of key new product releases, empowers Romax customers to accelerate time to market, reduce costs and the number of reworks required while improving quality and innovation.
"While progress has been made in driveline design and development over the last few years, competitive pressures keep moving the bar, resulting in a process that is still characterised by slower than needed development cycles, higher development costs and a reduced capacity for innovation. There is limited scope for creativity or innovation and there is often unnecessary and significant rework across many stages of design, modelling and analysis," says Dr. Jamie Pears, product manager, Romax Technology.
"Although the major organisations involved in driveline design have mostly achieved this shift from analogue to digital tools and from physical prototypes to virtual prototypes - the pressure is on to tackle the operational challenges they face and make the next shift forward".
Find out more about our new products
"We believe this is to develop next generation streamlined, cross-organisational processes which increase innovation and eliminate unnecessary re-work; break down intra and extra organisation walls to accommodate seamless, multi-directional collaboration and teaming and to enable these processes and organisations with next generation technology."
Encouragingly, today, there is an emerging group of leading organisations that are starting to make this complex shift and Romax, with its integrated approach to design and development, is in the vanguard of technology and service, enabling this new way of working.
The Romax solutions address the challenges organisations are facing in making the shift by enabling teams to work seamlessly across multiple packaged and in-house applications, building cross-team and cross-department connections and facilitating more collaborative working and shorter iteration cycles. Effectively, it provides the industry with an end-to-end solution, leveraging the best capabilities of Romax applications and other critical in-house and packaged applications used in driveline design and development.
Putting a Solution in Place
For Romax, the new approach is supported by the launch of three new products. The latest version of CONCEPT is an innovative concept design software package, targeted primarily at automotive, off-road, heavy equipment and aerospace. CONCEPT enables users to rapidly plan, develop and test concept driveline design options and then pass to RomaxDESIGNER for detailed design and analysis.
CAD FUSION is a robust data interoperability plug-in for moving model data quickly and easily between the company's flagship RomaxDESIGNER and CONCEPT products and third party CAD and gear design applications and tools. Dynamic FUSION is a revolutionary new way to significantly improve the speed and accuracy of component, gearbox and driveline Multibody Dynamic (MBD) Analysis.
"Supported by the strength of these releases, we are enabling our customers to build critical connections between designers and computer aided engineering (CAE) modellers and analysts who often work in different departments than other designers, analysts and modellers," says Pears.
"Together these solutions support the process from planning to manufacture and maximise a "lossless" development process where moving from one system to another doesn't require a model rebuild," adds Pears. "The solutions represent the core solution set that will increase the effectiveness of designers and analysts and are also intelligently open to passing sophisticated model and engineering data between other tools in the driveline design and development ecosystem.
"Ultimately, we're enabling a rapid and integrated approach that will make a significant difference to the everyday working process of designers and analysts across our core industries."
Romax Technology Recognized by Germanischer Lloyd for its Excellence in Engineering Design Process
27th March 2013 – World leading Renewable Certification body Germanischer Lloyd (GL) is holding a Ceremony with Romax Technology to celebrate the significant achievement of the 25th GL Statement of Compliance (A-Design Assessment Certification) over the last three years.
The ceremony, to be held at Romax' HQ in Nottingham on Wednesday 3rd April 2013, will involve key members of the Romax project team who have been involved in the design and development of the gearboxes. Key members of GL including Dr Karl Steingroever will award Romax the 25th A-Design Certificate and celebrate their working relationship in supporting the global wind market in achieving a world leading engineering standard.
Dr Steingroever said,'Romax are recognised by GL as the first company in the world to achieve 25 Gearbox designs with A-Design Certificates. Romax' team of industry leading experts have developed robust and accurate engineering processes, backed by technological experience, from planning through to certification, which means they consistently achieve this difficult challenge, quickly and expertly.'
Romax has an unbeatable track record of over 20 years' engineering experience, along with advanced tools in developing gearbox and drivetrain designs and working closely with government, industry and the major certification bodies. Romax has a total of 29 gearbox designs in production of which 25 are GL certified for wind turbines ranging from 1.5 MW to 5 MW upwards.
Director of the Drivetrain Business Unit at Romax Technology, Dr Xiaobing Hu, said ‘Romax has worked with GL in establishing a close-working collaboration; we have benefited from their guidance and have invested the time to understand and comply with the latest thinking in standards. Our experienced engineers together with our design expertise, software tools and consultancy services have enabled us to develop a compressed, rapid response, development cycle. That has reduced the total time of the normal process by more than 70% whilst ensuring designs are successfully realised to exceed international standards. This makes our certification process right first time, which is crucial for our customers as it means reduced design costs and a faster time to market.'
As part of its on-going investment in drivetrain development, Romax utilises state-of-the-art design and analysis techniques supported by its RomaxDESIGNER for wind, simulation software. RomaxDESIGNER is the only software certified by GL for gear calculation to design and analyse drivetrains to certification standards. This is supported by its lifecycle engineering services including manufacturing assessment and support, technical training, operations and maintenance services and its advanced predictive maintenance tools.
Romax Technology Granted Patents in Transfer Box and Dual Clutch Transmission
5th March 2013 – As part of its on-going investment in driveline innovation, Romax Technology adds two patents granted to its expanding portfolio of inventions. Romax's Research and Development investment is represented by over 35 driveline, wind and software patent families across the world.
With over twenty years in driveline engineering, Romax Technology is a world leader specialising in innovative and high value driveline engineering solutions for design, simulation and analysis for the ground vehicle, wind and aerospace industries. Romax solutions optimise performance, improve efficiency, increase reliability, accelerate time to market and reduce costs.
During a global project building a wind turbine test rig in Asia, the Romax team discovered the need for flexibility within mechanical test rigs, and quickly developed an invention (GB2487810B) to create an adjustable transfer box which can test wind turbines of up to 15 MW. Any mechanical test rig with this Romax capability means that it can test any matched pair gearbox with any shaft offset. The invention reduces cost while removing the need to create new transfer boxes when testing gearboxes of different designs. This invention can be used across multiple wind turbine applications.
The second of Romax' latest patents is for a unique dual clutch transmission (GB2478785B) that maximises the drive and driven gears without increasing the overall size of the design while minimising misalignment between gear meshes of the driving gearwheel, therefore reducing wear and noise as the gears mesh more efficiently and also reduce shaft fatigue.
The company has developed a number of solutions that support designers in developing and analysing drivelines, accurately and flexibly, in order to provide manufacturers with quick time to market, more efficient and reliable products that reduce CO2 emissions.
Amantys appoints Chief Executive Officer to drive revenue growth and new market engagement
Former 3Com, Thales, QinetiQ and C-MAC exec joins as CEO
Cambridge, UK, 10nd January 2013 – Amantys Ltd, the intelligent power switching company, today announced the appointment of Karen Oddey as Chief Executive Officer to lead the company through the next stage of its development.
Amantys recently secured a new investment round of $8m in November 2012, built on the early industry adoption of the Amantys Power DriveTM family of IGBT gate drivers. The subsequent introduction of Amantys Power Insight™ for the condition monitoring of power semiconductor modules gives the system designer a unique platform to enhance switching performance.
With over 20 years' of leadership experience at senior levels in many diverse electronic companies including 3Com, Thales and QinetiQ, Oddey brings to the company a broad range of experience growing and developing technology and engineering companies. Most recently, as CEO Oddey lead C-MAC Aerospace through to the successful sale of the business to API Technologies Corporation."
Commenting on the appointment, Chairman Pete Magowan said, "Karen brings to the team a depth of experience of electronics and technology leadership, having successfully navigated businesses through periods of significant transformation in products, systems and markets. Karen's background in diverse industries will be invaluable as we progress our customer engagements in wind generation, HVDC transmission, medium and high voltage motor drives and locomotive traction."
After an early engineering career in the power industry with NEI Parsons, Oddey moved into product and general management at 3Com Corporation. Oddey later served as Managing Director of the UK Land and Joint Systems Division at Thales Corporation and Managing Director of Technology Solutions Business at QinetiQ Group Plc. before joining C-MAC.
Speaking on her new role, Oddey said, "The team has developed a compelling series of Tier 1 OEM design-ins with its IGBT gate drive family of products, so it's an exciting time to join. My job is to lead the organisation to deliver the near and longer term opportunity, capitalising on the unique combination of analogue power electronics with the digital world of embedded processors and embedded software. Our products today are industry leading gate drives, but it is the potential for a more diverse range of products and business models that attracted me to Amantys."
Pete Magowan added, "I'd like to thank Bryn Parry for his contribution as founding CEO, and I am delighted that he is staying with the company to become VP Corporate Development, building on his work to date and further developing the long term relationships that are critical to our industry."
About Amantys
Established in Cambridge in 2010 as a privately-funded power electronics company, Amantys specialises in the delivery of scalable, cost effective solutions to meet the challenges of designing reliable and efficient power conversion in medium and high voltage applications. Amantys is backed by Moonray Investors, part of Fidelity International and ARM Holdings plc. (ARM).
The company has gained increased public recognition with success at both the Elektra Awards and the British Engineering Excellence Awards in 2012. The company has been highlighted by EE Times as one of its Silicon 60 Hot Companies to Watch, as well as being selected again for the prestigious Global Cleantech100, and picked out by Electronics Weekly as a "Start-up to follow in 2013".
For more information please visit www.amantys.com
Media contacts:
Richard Ord
Amantys Ltd
Tel: +44 1223 652 450
press@amantys.com
Darren Willsher/Richard Lambert
EML Wildfire
Tel: +44 208 408 8000
amantys@emlwildfire.com
Amantys secures significant new financing from Moonray Investors
Fresh injection of $8m in funds supports market growth
Cambridge, England, 22nd November 2012 –Amantys Limited (Amantys), the "power simplified, by design" company, today announces the successful closure of a new funding round of $8m. This significant new financing enables Amantys to expand into new markets and build on its successful power drive product family, launched in November 2011. This additional round of funding has again been led by Moonray Investors, part of Fidelity International.
Amantys has gone from strength to strength over the past two years, with the launch last year of an extensive family of Amantys Power Drive™ IGBT Module gate driver products (3.3kV, 1.7kV & 1.2kV). Earlier this year the company extended the capability of these products with the introduction of Amantys Power Insight™, a disruptive new hardware and software platform that redefines the landscape of power electronics, applying digital communications and control techniques to make the operating conditions at the heart of power switches visible. This visibility brings opportunities to optimise performance and to improve maintenance regimes in systems such as wind turbine power converters or traction systems for electrically powered locomotives.
Nicky McCabe, COO at Moonray Investors said: "We have continued to be really impressed with the success that Amantys has achieved over the last year, bringing new and disruptive products to market. They are gaining the attention of leading global power electronics companies in an industry set on improving efficiency and reliability," adding that "Amantys has set ambitious targets for the future, and we see great potential for the company and its products. This investment round will enable the company to grow the commercial organisation and extend its global presence, so we are proud to extend our backing to enable Amantys to deliver on that exciting market opportunity."
ARM vice president of segment marketing Vincent Korstanje is joining the Board of Amantys to represent ARM's continued support for its investment in Amantys. He commented: "Amantys' unique power switching technology delivers significant energy savings in medium and high voltage markets. This year Amantys added the Power InsightTM product that provides real-time monitoring and control of the power switch in order to further improve energy efficiency and reliability. This is a great example of the "Internet of Things" in which ARM-based processors are used to make a product more efficient by adding sensors, machine to machine communication, and remote diagnostics and control."
Bryn Parry, Amantys CEO added: "Our investors continue to demonstrate their support and commitment to us with this new round of funding from Moonray. We've made enormous progress in just a few short years, and this investment will allow us to develop the business further, and to deploy our products across a wider range of applications. With more exciting new products on the horizon, industry-wide recognition, and equipment demand growing, we expect to continue this success over the next few years."
Advisors on the deal were: Beachcroft LLP and Taylor Wessing LLP.
About Amantys
Established in Cambridge in 2010 as a privately-funded power electronics company, Amantys specialises in the delivery of scalable, cost effective solutions to enable the design of reliable and efficient power conversion in medium and high voltage applications.
For more information please visit www.amantys.com
Media contacts:
Richard Ord
Amantys
Tel: +44 1223 652 457
press@amantys.com
Darren Willsher/Richard Lambert
EML Wildfire
Tel: +44 208 408 8000
amantys@emlwildfire.com
Amantys named Start Up of the Year Award at the British Engineering Excellence Awards
Award recognises rapid progress in bringing innovative products for power electronics switching
Cambridge, England, 26th October 2012 –Amantys Limited (Amantys), the intelligent power switch company, has been presented with the Start Up of the Year Award at the British Engineering Excellence Awards (BEEAs).
Presented at an impressive ceremony at London's new Northumberland House venue, the award recognises the quality of engineering design innovation within the UK, providing a benchmark of excellence from which the industry can learn and build. The Start Up of the Year Award was selected by a panel of technical and esteemed judges chosen from a wide range of electronic and engineering design disciplines.
Presenting the award, the judges noted that "Amantys has the potential to make a significant contribution to power efficiency."
Earlier this year, Amantys launched its Amantys Power Insight capability for condition monitoring of power electronic systems, adding gate drives for 1200V and 1700V IGBT modules to extend the existing Power Drive product family.
"We're absolutely thrilled to receive this award, which is great recognition for the level of hard work and ingenuity that we've invested over the last couple of years," said Bryn Parry, Amantys CEO. "We're very proud to have received this accolade from the prestigious panel of judges, especially considering the strength of the competition present at this year's awards."
This award marks a great month for the company, following on rapidly from the company's second successive selection to the Global Cleantech 100, and being identified in the EE Times "Silicon 60 start-ups to watch". Amantys has also been shortlisted for the 'Power System Product of the Year' category at this year's Elektra Awards, the results of which will be announced on 12th December 2012.
About Amantys
Established in Cambridge in 2010 as a privately-funded power electronics company, Amantys specialises in the delivery of scalable, cost effective solutions to meet the challenges of designing reliable and efficient power conversion in medium and high voltage applications.
For more information please visit www.amantys.com
Media contacts:
Richard Ord
Amantys
Tel: +44 1223 652 457
press@amantys.com
Darren Willsher/Richard Lambert
EML Wildfire
Tel: +44 208 408 8000
amantys@emlwildfire.com
Amantys recognised for second year running in Global Cleantech 100
Building on company success throughout 2012
Cambridge, UK, 2nd October 2012 –Amantys, the intelligent power switch company, today announced that for the second consecutive year it has been honoured in the Global Cleantech 100, a global ranking in association with The Guardian, recognising the most innovative and promising ideas from the cleantech industry.
The company, backed by Moonray and ARM, has gone from strength to strength over the past two years, and now offers an extensive Power Drive product family (3.3kV, 1.7kV & 1.2kV) in addition to developing a revolutionary new platform, the Amantys Power Insight™, delivering real-time power switch performance metrics through the existing control interface. Power Insight is redefining the landscape of power electronics, deploying ARM processors to deliver more effective, reliable power switching systems.
The Global Cleantech 100 list is unique in the sector because it highlights the promise of private clean technology companies from all around the world, focusing on those companies tipped by the biggest players in the market as the most likely to make a significant impact over the next 5 to 10 years.
"We are delighted that Amantys has been selected as part of the Global Cleantech 100 for the second year running, endorsing our view that its cutting edge power switching products deliver energy efficiency at each stage of power generation, transmission and consumption" commented Nicky McCabe, COO at Moonray Investors.
The list is derived from Cleantech Group's own data and research combined with the weighted qualitative judgments of hundreds of nominations and the viewpoints of a global panel of 75 cleantech experts. To qualify for the list, companies must be independent, for-profit cleantech companies that are not listed on any major stock exchange.
"The Global Cleantech 100 is a natural extension of our companywide mission to help corporations, investors and financiers, professional service firms and governmental agencies connect with global cleantech innovation" said Sheeraz Haji, Cleantech Group CEO. "This report celebrates the best in innovation and is the industry standard on gauging where cleantech innovation is headed next."
Bryn Parry, CEO of Amantys comments, "For a new company to be recognised in 2011 by the Cleantech 100, we felt a real achievement for the work we had already completed. Now, in 2012, Amantys has taken the innovation a step further, delivering vital data from the heart of power switching onto the web, a tangible demonstration of machine-to-machine communication over the ‘Internet of Things'. Our inclusion for a second year is really a huge compliment, and further boosts our confidence in the strides we've made.
From being part of the top 100 last year, we had a number of people contact us directly as a result. To have such a tangible result is invaluable for any business."
About Amantys
Established in 2010 as a privately-funded power electronics company and based in Cambridge, UK, Amantys specialises in power electronic products, that deliver a scalable, cost effective solution to meet the challenges of designing reliable and efficient power conversion in medium and high voltage applications.
Amantys will be exhibiting its products at SPS IPC Drives 2012 in Nuremberg in November.
For more information please visit www.amantys.com
About Cleantech Group
Cleantech Group's market intelligence, events and advisory services accelerate market adoption, stimulate demand, and remove barriers to cleantech innovation. A global company with offices in North America and Europe, we connect business leaders with cleantech innovation through the i3 Platform, the most comprehensive, vetted, up-to-date source for insights into companies, investors, financing and relationships across the clean technology ecosystem. Cleantech Group also produces the premier Cleantech Forum® and Focus™ events worldwide.
About the Guardian
The Guardian is one of the UK's leading daily titles, and the Guardian.co.uk website delivers its liberal journalism to a global audience. The Guardian's vision is to be the leader on sustainability within the media industry. Through its editorial coverage and business activities, the Guardian demonstrates to its readers, staff, advertisers, suppliers and its communities that Guardian News & Media is committed to enhancing society's ability to build a sustainable future.
Media contacts
Whitney Bennett Michael
Cleantech Group
Tel: +1 (415) 233-9711
media-services@cleantech.com
Richard Ord
Amantys
Tel:+44 1223 652 457
press@amantys.com
Ellen Sinclair
EML Wildfire
Tel: +44 208 408 8000
amantys@emlwildfire.com
Pete Magowan has been appointed as Head of Energy at Moonray Investors
1st July 2012 –AWe are pleased to confirm the appointment of Pete Magowan as Head of Energy at Moonray Investors. Pete is Chairman and co-founder of Amantys, one of Moonray's energy investments. Pete has a wealth of experience in both the public and private sectors and he has established a successful track record in sales, business development and marketing management.
Pete was an early employee and latterly main board member of ARM Holdings plc where he was instrumental in ARM's entry into the mobile market. Following ARM, Pete was a General Partner at Alta Berkeley Ventures. Pete has served on both private and public company boards (Nasdaq and LSE) and previously served on the boards of Superscape (Glu Mobile), Frontier Silicon (Toumaz Holdings), Polatis Inc, Imbera Inc (Epcos GmbH), Amphion (Conexant) and Lime Microsystems. Pete was an early investor in PA Semi (Apple).
As Head of Energy, Pete will drive Moonray's Energy strategy, lead the associated investment activity as well as support the day-to-day execution of each business plan within the Energy portfolio that includes Amantys, Romax Technology, Bankend Rigg and Isotera.
Wind farms + algorithms = InSight
12th June 2012 – Moonray Investors believes the Wind Services market is a highly attractive and has significant growth potential. A key trigger for this is the increasing proportion of turbines coming off warranty as a sizeable global turbine fleet begins to age. Also whilst new installation growth is slowing, demand for service support is being fuelled by increasing turbine sizes and the challenges of offshore development. However for operators wind farm returns are underperforming due to lower than predicted turbine output, high than expected maintenance costs and poor access to actionable performance data on which to make operating decisions.
Effective condition monitoring, well established in other industries, is needed in the wind industry to rectify these issues. Romax Technology, the world leading drivetrain specialist which Moonray invested into in 2012, has developed a game-changing solution that solves the limitations of existing wind condition monitoring offerings. Their algorithm based InSight solution, developed in partnership with some of the world's leading wind farm owners and operators, is a lower cost, highly intelligent and easy to use condition monitoring solution that provides customers with a significant payback.
Moonray's market knowledge, growth capital, and long-term investment approach is enabling Romax to accelerate their growth. For information on Moonray's other investments click here
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Romax agrees to move to the University of Nottingham Innovation Park
21st May 2012 – Romax Technology, world leading gearbox, bearing and driveline engineering specialists, has today signed an agreement to move into new premises at the University of Nottingham's Innovation Park (UNIP).
Romax has rapidly expanded its simulation technology and drivetrain design business and has been growing at a rate of around 20% per annum on average, creating many new jobs both in the UK and overseas. Romax hopes to create around 100 new jobs in Nottingham and the UK over the next three to five years.
Currently based at the Nottingham Science Park, Romax, employing 105 staff in the UK, has outgrown its current premises and has also been renting additional units on the park to accommodate its employees. The new, purpose built, 3100m2 premises at UNIP will incorporate offices, a training suite and laboratory space. It will enable Romax to bring all of our UK staff under one roof and will also give us space into which to grow in the future.
A large number of businesses are already based on UNIP, but the Romax building will mark the first bespoke commercial development at the park. The cost of the development is £5.6 million, and the University will lease the premises to Romax for an initial period of 10 years.
Romax promotes green energy in the products and solutions it develops and the new building will reflect this; by using the latest sustainable and environmentally friendly building technologies, as well as aiming to achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating for the project. These technologies include the use of sustainable construction techniques, including biomass heating, building heat recovery and reuse, waste water recycling, solar shading and a biodiverse green roof.
Dr Peter Poon, founder and CEO of Romax said: "I am delighted to be signing this lease. The University of Nottingham Innovation Park is a great location for Romax. Not only does it offer us a purpose built facility with excellent campus services, it also maintains strong links with the University, which is important to us, as they share our ethos for innovation.
"This expansion enables us to continue to develop our simulation technology and drivetrain design business and, in addition, we will also be able to create high quality jobs for the local area. This in turn will help us to accelerate the development of our exciting portfolio of new products and services, especially those focused on wind energy."
The University of Nottingham has enjoyed a long history of partnering with Romax. Romax has undertaken a Knowledge Transfer Partnership with the University, as well as collaborating on major energy and aerospace research projects and providing placement and full-time employment opportunities for university students. Romax and the University were also instrumental in helping to persuade Changan Automobile, the Chinese car manufacturer, to establish its European R&D centre in Nottingham.
Speaking at the signing of the agreement with Romax, Professor David Greenaway, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nottingham, said: "To have Romax based at the University of Nottingham Innovation Park is an exciting prospect. Romax is a world class business which will be undertaking cutting edge development work here and creating many new jobs in the process.
"This commitment also further cements the exceptionally strong links that The University of Nottingham already has with Asia in general and China in particular. I am sure that both Romax and the University will benefit greatly from our continued close partnership."
Amantys delivers the next technology breakthrough in its product roadmap
Amantys Power InsightTM provides vital power monitoring capabilities to improve system design and reliability.
Cambridge, UK, 25th April 2012 –Amantys Ltd, the intelligent power switch company, today announces its latest product enhancement, Amantys Power Insight™, delivering real-time power switch performance metrics through the existing control interface.
This product follows the successful launch of the Amantys Power DriveTM in November 2011, and will integrate across various application areas, including locomotive traction, medium voltage motor drives, wind turbine inverters and high voltage DC infrastructure.
Amantys Power Insight enables the export of six key measurements from the gate driver including Vce, switching time and gate drive temperature. In addition it allows remote configuration of both the gate drive resistors and the alarm limits, all whilst carrying out post-failure diagnosis on events such as over temperature and short circuits.
The technology simplifies the "design-in" of IGBT modules in power converters by allowing the designer to monitor and tune the assembled system without the need for time-consuming assembly and dis-assembly of the inverter. Amantys Power Insight allows development engineers to test the system and adjust gate resistor settings using the existing interface to optimise switching characteristics for their specific system needs.
Throughout the manufacturing process, Amantys Power Insight gives a simple but safe method for ensuring the correct configuration of the IGBT module and gate resistor setting to confirm the correct equipment build.
Insight–enabled gate drives incorporate extra hardware, including a microcontroller to export real time data on the performance of the system, giving constant
confirmation of correct performance, fault codes and performance drift over time, providing early warning of potential IGBT failure, as well as "black box" data logging for failure analysis.
All of this is available to system designers within the current physical format of IGBT modules and gate drives, whether for new designs or a retrofit of existing systems.
Bryn Parry, CEO Amantys commented: "When we launched the Amantys Power Drive in November in 2011, we were committed to developing Amantys Power Insight in time for PCIM this year. I am delighted with the progress of this technology, and through the addition of monitoring to our gate drives, we're already working with tier one manufacturers to simplify the design, commissioning and operation of more reliable and robust systems."
Amantys will be demonstrating Amantys Power Insight at PCIM 2012, as well as showing new Insight-enabled Power Drives operating at 1200 Volts and 1700 Volts. See us at PCIM from the 8th to the 10th of May on stand number 246 in Hall 12.
About Amantys
Established in 2010 as a privately-funded power electronics company and based in Cambridge, UK, Amantys specialises in power electronic products, that deliver a scalable, cost effective solution to meet the challenges of designing reliable and efficient power conversion in medium and high voltage applications.
Its mission is to deliver an intelligent power switch that dramatically improves the energy efficiency, effectiveness and reliability of power switching electronics, and so reducing the amount of waste energy dissipated as heat.
Amantys will be exhibiting its products at PCIM 2012 in Nuremberg in May.
For more information please visit www.amantys.com
Contact:
Richard Ord
Amantys
Tel: +44 1223 652 457
press@amantys.com
Ellen Sinclair
EML Wildfire
Tel: +44 208 408 8000
amantys@emlwildfire.com
Isotera receives £1.1m investment to launch intelligent LED lighting system
Moonray Investors provides early stage funding to Cambridge-based lighting network company Isotera as part of a £1.1m funding round. Isotera's intelligent LED lighting system squeezes the best possible energy efficiency from LED lights, and makes installation far more affordable. This lowers the cost of ownership and encourages accelerated adoption of ‘green' LED lighting and automated lighting controls.
Isotera's system will revolutionise the installation of energy-efficient lighting systems by making it faster, cheaper and safer for electrical contractors to install and for facility managers to maintain. The system is based on novel power distribution architecture and features contactless power transfer. It provides a durable lighting infrastructure in buildings and outdoors whilst reducing capital costs by 30-50% and reducing electronic waste by as much as 60%.
Isotera is working in partnership with key players in the global lighting supply chain to offer end-to-end solutions to contractors and system integrators. The company will use the funds to expand the team, launch its first suite of products and generate revenues.
Moonray's investment was as part of a syndicate, headed by Qi3 Accelerator, that also included investments from the Low Carbon Innovation Fund (LCIF), Synergy Energy, London Business Angels and the LBA EIS Roundtable Syndicate Fund, Martlet, Cambridge Angels, Cambridge Capital Group and Surrey Investment Club.
Isotera's CEO, Marc Ottolini said: "With the completion of this funding round we shall now implement our mission, which is to turn Isotera into the default network infrastructure of intelligent lighting, the invisible part of the system that makes it all work. I am delighted to have a group of investors behind us who had the vision to back us at this early stage. The end result is not only the money but also a high calibre Board. During the many months that we have been working together on this deal we have gelled as a team, allowing us to make a running start. I hope that our efforts will further strengthen the power electronics cluster in Cambridge."
Moonray Investors' Director, Paul Humphrey commented: "We were particularly impressed by Isotera's novel solution to power distribution and control systems for LED lighting. Their technology provides both energy efficiency and cost benefits and we look forward to working with team to bring their products to market."
Enquiries
Isotera: Marc Ottolini, CEO mottolini@isotera.com +44 (0)7811 459011 Moonray Investors: Paul Humphrey, Director paul.humphrey@fil.com
+44 (0)1732 777336
Amantys attracts Experienced Power Electronics Executive to the Board with the appointment of Erwin Wolf as a Non-Executive Director
Cambridge, UK, 28th February 2012 – Amantys Ltd, the intelligent power switch company, announces the appointment of power industry expert and entrepreneur Erwin Wolf to the Board of the company.
Erwin has a vast experience in leading business ventures and advanced technology teams in the field of optoelectronics and power semiconductors primarily with Siemens AG and Infineon AG. Currently Erwin is CEO of Azzurro Semiconductors, supplying GaN on silicon wafers for LED and power semiconductor applications. Prior to Azzurro he was Vice President Technology in power semiconductors at Infineon, and before that, Managing Director at Infineon Fibre Optik GmbH. His 30 year career also includes the role of CEO at OSRAM Opto Semiconductors Inc. and Vice President of Opto Components at Siemens AG, and Infineon with global experience including posts in Malaysia and California.
Commenting on this appointment, Chairman Pete Magowan said "The addition of Erwin to the Amantys Board brings a strength and depth of knowledge of the power industry, and will help us greatly to extend our partnerships with semiconductor companies. Amantys continues to make rapid progress and the team are very much looking forward to drawing on Erwin's experience as the company further establishes itself in the power switching market,"
Speaking on his appointment, Erwin said "I've been impressed with the speed at which Amantys has established its credentials with major OEMs and the power chip industry as it brings its first products to market. As the company moves into the next stage of its growth I'm looking forward to helping the team to build on its early successes."
Specialist engineering and simulation software company Romax announces investment partnership with Moonray Investors
Nottingham, 21 February 2012: Romax Technology Limited (Romax) the market-leading specialist engineering and software company, announces new investment partnership with Moonray Investors. Under the arrangement, Moonray will become a substantial minority shareholder in Romax and will nominate two directors to the Board of Romax. The company, which was founded by Peter Poon in 1989, will remain majority-owned by the Poon family.
As a consequence of Moonray's investment, the company will be able to continue to further develop its highly successful simulation technology and gearbox design business as well as accelerate its investment in new and exciting technologies associated with wind energy.
Peter Poon, CEO of Romax: "I am delighted to have found a partner who shares our ethos, values and growth aspirations. Moonray is an active investor in technology-focused businesses, making recent investments in energy efficiency technologies which provide interesting synergies with Romax. Moonray will bring market knowledge and extensive business experience, in addition to growth capital, and their long-term perspective makes them true partners in our business.
Our strong commitment to R&D and our passion for innovation and engineering excellence will not change. We are now a better-resourced company able to enhance the value we deliver to our customers as well as being able to accelerate the development of an exciting portfolio of new products and services."
Nicky McCabe, COO of Moonray Investors: "Right from the outset we were impressed by the cutting edge technology and high quality engineering focus of Romax. We look forward to playing our part in helping Romax to achieve its clear and significant potential."
About Romax
Established in 1989 by world renowned bearing expert Dr Peter Poon, Romax has become the technology leader in high accuracy simulation and analysis of bearing, gearbox and driveline systems. In over 20 years of providing expert engineering services to the global vehicle, aerospace, marine, rail and wind energy industries, Romax created and refined RomaxDesigner, the world's first object orientated engineering analysis software package, validated through use by the world's leading companies, including 13 of the top 15 automotive manufacturers.
Building on their extensive knowledge of driveline systems, Romax has established a leading position in wind turbine gearbox design. Their GL Certified high MW gearbox designs have been selected by major manufacturers for their proven durability. This experience has built a solid platform from which Romax are now developing pioneering new services able to minimise wind turbine downtime and optimise financial returns for wind energy operators and manufacturers.
Romax serve customers across Europe, Asia and the US and through their class leading products and services have secured numerous awards including the Queens Award for International Trade.
More Information on Romax Technology available at: http://www.romaxtech.com
Construction begins at Bankend Rigg Wind Farm
Scotland, January 2012: Construction has begun on the wind farm owned by Wilson Renewables LLP in which Moonray Investors is a partner investor. After a challenging planning process, complicated by the site sitting across two council jurisdictions, the first contractors began work on the site near the Glengavel Reservoir.
It is expected that the construction period will take around 12 months, with the 11 turbine, 14.3MW wind farm fully operational by the end of 2012. This investment represented Moonray Energy's first move into the wind sector and provides invaluable knowledge of the industry and a platform on which new wind products and services can be assessed.
James Lowther, Director of Moonray: "Due to the long term nature of Moonray Energy's investment approach we see it as essential to really understand the sectors that we invest in and what it is that drives success for the various stakeholders involved. Our involvement in the Bankend wind farm development has given us tangible first hand experience and has undoubtedly informed and benefited our other energy related investments"
Wilma Wilson, Partner in Wilson Renewables: "As the majority investor and land owner of the Bankend wind farm development it was important for us to find a co-investor with the same approach and aspirations as ourselves. In Moonray we found a partner that had the same long term view of the Bankend investment and who was both willing and able to drive the management of the project in the short term. Like most wind farm developments, we have had to overcome a number of significant challenges in securing planning, achieving financial close and setting up the construction phase and the partnership that we have established with Moonray has been a key factor in us overcoming these"
Amantys introduces its Power Drive – its first advanced product for improved reliability and performance in medium/high voltage applications
Amantys Ltd, the intelligent power switch company, has this week launched its first product, the Amantys Power Drive, an advanced, high isolation gate drive for medium and high voltage applications. This single channel gate drive incorporates a number of system enhancements to deliver a compact solution designed for longer life reliability and improved performance over comparable solutions. The company anticipates strong demand in applications as varied as HVDC, industrial and locomotive motor drives, and hybrid and electric vehicles.
Current products in the market are custom engineered for each application, and as a consequence, scarce and valuable power engineering resources are diverted from real product differentiation with repetitive engineering work. At the recent launch of the UK's "Power Electronics: A Strategy for Success" the scarcity of such skills was identified as one of the key industry challenges. By providing a common platform to drive a range of different IGBTs from several manufacturers, the Amantys Power Drive brings greater design reuse allowing those skilled resources to be redeployed on higher-level product innovation.
The Amantys Power Drive is configurable for various power modules and offers control of the rate of voltage and current change (dV/dt and dI/dt). The compact design sits within the power module dimensions to give a more robust design and a smaller footprint. It is compatible with existing drives but offers improved characteristics, switching modules from Infineon, Mitsubishi, Dynex and Toshiba.
Bryn Parry, CEO, Amantys comments, "We're launching the Amantys Power Drive as the first step on a very focused technology journey for Amantys; we're thrilled that we're already pushing the boundaries of existing market solutions. As a new company in the power electronics industry, early customer engagement is vital to building relationships, earning recognition, and of course, building first revenues. By raising industry's expectations of a gate drive and how power is switched, this announcement paves the way for the intelligent power switch we're developing right now."
Lead customers will receive the Amantys Power Drive samples this year with general availability in the first quarter of 2012, and production beginning in the second quarter. The company expects to follow this first product announcement with further product releases in the first quarter of 2012.
In July 2011, Amantys secured a $7million Series A round investment, led by Moonray Investors, part of Fidelity International and ARM Holdings plc (ARM).
About Amantys
Amantys's mission is to improve dramatically the energy efficiency, effectiveness and reliability of power switching electronics by reducing the amount of waste energy dissipated as heat. Amantys are working with lead customers and announced its first products in Q42011.
More information on Amantys is available at: www.amantys.com
Contact: press@amantys.com
Richard Ord
Office: 01223 442 447
Mobile: 07734 060 058
Energy efficiency company Amantys enters the Global Cleantech 100 List
Energy Efficiency company Amantys has today announced its successful entry into the Global Cleantech 100, a global ranking in association with The Guardian, recognising the most innovative and promising ideas in cleantech.
Bryn Parry, Amantys CEO said:
"Amantys is the newest example of a high tech start-up in Cambridge, joining a growing number of businesses addressing global energy challenges. We are thrilled to have been selected to appear next to many of the companies at the forefront of the cleantech industry, coming on the same day as we support the UK Power Electronics Strategy Launch in conjunction with The National Microelectronics Institute and the Department for Business Innovation and Skills"
This year 4,274 companies were nominated from more than 45 countries. These companies were weighted and scored to create a short list of 213 companies presented to the expert panel for final input. The end result was 100 companies from 16 countries.
The Global Cleantech 100 list is unique in the sector because it highlights the promise of private clean technology companies from all around the world, focusing on those companies, which are most likely to make the most significant market impact over the next 5-10 years.
"The third Global Cleantech 100 exemplifies the best in cleantech innovation across the world," said Richard Youngman, Managing Director, Europe and Asia, Cleantech Group and the founder of the Global Cleantech 100. "This list is based on the collective wisdom and experience of the world's cleantech leaders and this year it truly reflects not only the most interesting companies, but also the mainstreaming of this dynamic industry."
About Amantys
Amantys's mission is to improve dramatically the energy efficiency, effectiveness and reliability of power switching electronics by reducing the amount of waste energy dissipated as heat. Amantys are working with lead customers and will be announcing first products in Q42011.
More information on Amantys is available at: www.amantys.com
Contact: press@amantys.com
Richard Ord
Office: 01223 442 447
Mobile: 07734 060 058
Amantys secures strategic project funding from EEDA
Amantys, an energy efficiency power electronics company, today announced the successful award of an EEDA (East of England Development Agency) Grant for Research and Development, supported with funding from the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund), bringing Government backing to the newest innovation to emerge from the Cambridge phenomenon.
This EEDA grant will allow Amantys to build its team to accelerate key aspects of its switching technology to deliver a high efficiency power module. The grant underlines the confidence demonstrated in July this year, when the company announced a successful Series A investment round including Fidelity International's Moonray Investors and ARM Holdings Plc. (ARM), and this has been further endorsed by the company being shortlisted in the category of Start-up of the Year 2011 by Electronics Weekly for its annual Elektra Awards which recognises the best companies and technologies in the electronics industry.
The EEDA award will support Amantys on its project development, delivering a next generation power electronics product for power control applications as diverse as motor drives, traction control, renewable inverters, electric and hybrid vehicles, UPS, transformers and HVDC infrastructure.
Annabel Grant, Business Finance Manager at EEDA commented:
"EEDA has supported many early stage high-tech companies in Cambridge, but this is the first to target the power industry. As well as employing some excellent skills in the digital and analogue electronics domain traditionally found in the region, Amantys will be extending the talent pool in the area with new positions in power electronics."
Bryn Parry, Amantys CEO added:
"Amantys is the newest example of a high tech start-up in Cambridge, combining the best of academic research with the business and product acumen of experienced executives from ARM. This government endorsement helps us tackle the critical challenges of efficiency and reliability faced by the energy industry. We're going through a really exciting phase of our development so now we're expanding the engineering and commercial teams to get to market quickly."
About Amantys
Amantys's mission is to improve dramatically the energy efficiency, effectiveness and reliability of power switching electronics by reducing the amount of waste energy dissipated as heat. Amantys are working with lead customers and will be announcing first products in Q42011.
More information on Amantys is available at: www.amantys.com
Contact: press@amantys.com
Richard Ord
Office: 01223 442 447
Mobile: 07734 060 058
Energy Efficiency Company Amantys Secures Significant Funding from Fidelity International's Moonray Investors and ARM plc.
$7M Series A Financing supports digital power platform market entry.
Cambridge, England, 7th July, 2011 – Amantys Limited (Amantys), an energy efficiency power electronics company, today announced the successful closure of a $7 million Series A round. The new funding enables Amantys to continue with the commercialisation of its digital power switching platform.
The new funding round has been led by Moonray Investors, part of Fidelity International and ARM Holdings plc (ARM). Moonray Investors has additionally purchased certain of the remaining external minority interests in Amantys.
Amantys, formed in 2010 by former ARM executives and an academic from Cambridge University, is developing a family of digital power platforms which will bring very high efficiency, reliable power switching and intelligence to power applications across the energy generation, transmission and consumption sectors.
Nicky McCabe, COO at Moonray Investors said:
"We have been impressed with the progress that Amantys has made in a short time and we have a shared vision of bringing disruptive power switching technology to wherever power is converted or transformed. The scale of the opportunity and the principle of early customer engagement are compelling and we are delighted to add Amantys to our growing portfolio."
Pete Magowan, Amantys' Chairman said:
"We are delighted to welcome Moonray Investors and ARM as shareholders in Amantys. Fidelity not only brings financial resources but also commercial connections in the sector." He added, "ARM is recognised as a world leading technology company with a shared passion for power-efficient electronics. With our advanced digital platform we believe we can address power losses all the way from wind and solar photovoltaic modules, transmission grids and transformers through to electric motors and electric vehicles. Our motivation is simple – Why Waste Watts?™."
Bruce Beckloff, ARM VP Corporate Business Development, commented:
"The high-calibre Amantys founding team is well-placed to deliver a disruptive solution to address the problem of efficiency losses. We believe power efficiency needs to be tackled across the power supply-chain and not just at the device level and ARM has been impressed with what the team has achieved. We look forward to seeing the impact of Amantys' products on the market".
Bryn Parry, Amantys CEO said:
"The new round of funding, financed by two blue chip companies, will enable us to commercialise our digital power platform by launching our first products into the marketplace, significantly expand our team and work with our customers. We have been very encouraged with the results that we have been able to achieve with our product prototypes switching both silicon and silicon carbide devices and we look forward to bringing our first products to market."
Advisors on the deal were: Simon Haworth of Team Kapital, Beachcroft LLP and Taylor Wessing LLP.
About Amantys
Amantys's mission is to improve dramatically the energy efficiency, effectiveness and reliability of power switching electronics by reducing the amount of waste energy dissipated as heat. Amantys are working with lead customers and will be announcing first products in Q42011.
Why Waste Watts?™ is a trademark of Amantys.
More information on Amantys is available at: www.amantys.com
Contact: press@amantys.com
Richard Ord
Office: 01223 442 447
Mobile: 07734 060 058
About ARM
ARM designs the technology that lies at the heart of advanced digital products, from wireless, networking and consumer entertainment solutions to imaging, automotive, security and storage devices. ARM's comprehensive product offering includes 32-bit RISC microprocessors, graphics processors, video engines, enabling software, cell libraries, embedded memories, high-speed connectivity products, peripherals and development tools. Combined with comprehensive design services, training, support and maintenance, and the company's broad Partner community, they provide a total system solution that offers a fast, reliable path to market for leading electronics companies.
More information on ARM is available at: www.arm.com
Moonray Healthcare raises $60 million to invest in Optegra's international expansion
Moonray Healthcare, a private company specialising in buy and build healthcare investments, has led a $60m investment into Optegra, a leading provider of eye surgery.
With an initial focus on ophthalmology, Moonray Healthcare intends to build a portfolio of healthcare services companies based on common attributes of strong consumer branding, superior customer experiences and service innovation on a worldwide platform.
In a twist to conventional private equity models, Moonray Healthcare's investment objective is for long-term income. This necessitates strong fundamental characteristics with which to invest growth capital over ten year plus views of a sector.
Optegra will use the $60 million investment from Moonray Healthcare to create further hospitals in several countries, following the successful completion of the first full year of operation at Optegra's first hospital in Guildford, UK.
Optegra offers a full range of eye surgery using the most advanced technology and experienced surgeons available.
Tim Clover, Chief Executive of Moonray Healthcare, says Optegra aims to become the market leader in the developing market for implantable lenses, which free people from spectacles (both for distance and reading).
"This technology allows the growing number of people over the age of 50 who require multiple glasses to live spectacle free lives by correcting long and short distance vision simultaneously" Mr Clover said. "It has the added benefit of protecting against future cataract formation, which affects 70% of 70 year olds. This is a business with a large potential market, approaching 30% of the developed world and growing rapidly as populations around the world age."
Optegra recently had a breakthrough success at its Guildford hospital. Surgeons implanted two lenses in a blind patient's eye to create a telescopic effect and redirect light away from damaged areas of the retina. As a result, the patient was able to see well enough to regain his driving license.
More information on Optegra is available at: www.optegra.com
Download the full press release (PDF 44 KB)
For further press information, please contact:
Rachel Taylor/Jane Sell: Kavanagh Communications
T: 01483 238 840
Rachel@kavanaghcommunications.com
