Keit Ltd, based at the Harwell Campus in Oxford, has completed a GBP1.4 million funding round led by Longwall Ventures, with additional investment from the Angel CoFund, Rainbow Seed Fund, Wren Capital and various angel investors.
Keit’s MicroFTSÔ spectrometer, which stems from research work done at the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory by Dr Hugh Mortimer for a mission to Mars, directly measures molecular bonds, determining accurately and quickly the identity and concentration of the components of a fluid.
Keit’s patented approach uses no moving parts and so is capable of operating seamlessly in tough environments such as manufacturing facilities allowing optimisation of processes and minimisation of waste.
Dan Wood, Keit CEO, says: “This funding has come about as a result of the excellent work of the Keit team in developing the technology and the unambiguously positive reaction from the trial work with customers. We are delighted to have a supportive set of like-minded institutions backing our development and growth.”
Tim Mills, investment director at the Angel CoFund, says: “We are pleased to be involved in the development of this innovative company. Keit is a good example of UK science research becoming an industrial product reality.”
David Denny, partner at Longwall, says: “We are delighted with Keit’s progress during the last 6 months after several years of development work and we have high expectations for this company.”
The MicroFTS has been successively trialled by companies in the pharmaceutical and process industries. This funding round will be used to complete the certification of Keit’s first product and provide working capital for its worldwide launch.
