LONDON — Perpetuum Ltd., a spin-out from the University of Southampton working on an energy-harvesting device made using MEMS techniques, has raised £2.2 million (about $3.8 million) in a series 'A' funding round, according to U.K. venture capital company Quester.
Quester committed £1.4 million (about $2.4 million) to the funding round. Another firm, Top Technology and Perpetuum's existing backers including Sulis, a fund managed by Quester, also invested in the company. The money provided to Perpetuum would be used to complete the development of the company’s first commercial products, Quester said.
Perpetuum’s MEMS-based micro-generators use readily available kinetic energy to generate electricity to power electronic circuitry. Typical applications for such micro-generators are included with sensors, microprocessors and RF transmitters thus enabling a completely self-powered wireless and battery-less sensor node.
Perpetuum, having received its first silicon in March 2005, has subsequently demonstrated pre-production units in trial installations with three customers in military, water utility and petrochemical applications, Quester said.
This is a crucial stage in the company's development as we move to the point of commercialising our technology,” said Roy Freeland, chief executive officer of Perpetuum, in a statement issued by Quester.
“Perpetuum is a good example of the strong technology coming out of the U.K.'s leading universities and is indicative of the increasing number of high quality early-stage investment opportunities we are seeing,” said Henry Sallitt, an investment director at Quester, in the same statement.
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