PlasmaBound Closes further €2.35 million Funding Round
PlasmaBound, a University College Dublin (UCD) spin-out, has today announced the completion of a €2.35 million funding round. The funding will permit rapid acceleration on the path toward enabling their vision of sustainable lightweight materials being a standard feature on vehicles, devices and structures, globally, without the complexity, cost and waste involved today.
PlasmaBound’s Controlled Polymer Ablation (CPA) technology is attracting significant interest in several sectors, where it empowers global industry to achieve their sustainability goals, particularly in carbon reduction and battery range extension. The technology is deployed in a SaaS model, with term-based licensing.
PlasmaBound’s CPA enables high speed bonding of ultra-lightweight fibre-reinforced materials in a manner where it will effectively take on a role similar to welding in metals. This will collapse operational cycle times, extend shelf-life, and reduce manufacturing waste streams, all the while improving ultimate bond strengths.
The investment round is led by Act Venture Capital, and supported by the Atlantic Bridge University Fund, Enterprise Ireland and a number of private investors.
Alan Barry, CEO, PlasmaBound, said, “Our technology is about getting more renewable, lightweight materials into use faster as we seek a more sustainable carbon-reduced future. We are excited to continue our rapidly accelerating journey toward enabling these materials to be standard on vehicles, structures and devices. Right now this is limited by cost and complexity to only high-tech applications, or premium price points, with limited real environmental impact. Pushing recyclable composites into mainstream mass-production will move the dial on all our efforts for a sustainable tomorrow. This funding signals confidence in this opportunity.”
Pictured (l-r) at NovaUCD are PlasmaBound team members; Conor Luttrell, Dr James Nicholas Barry, Oisin Gavigan, Alan Barry, Xavier Montibert and Eileen Curtin.
John O’Sullivan, General Partner, Act Venture Capital, said, “The level of real world plasma control achieved with CPA will let industries use composites ubiquitously, cost effectively and creatively – it will enable a big step forward in composite material use. Something I think the sector has been waiting for.’’
PlasmaBound, headquartered at NovaUCD, was co-founded in 2017 by Dr James Nicholas Barry, Alan Barry and Xavier Montibert as a spin-out from the UCD College of Engineering and Architecture following the completion of Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Funding.
ENDS
1 May 2022
For further information contact Xavier Montibert, Commercial Director, PlasmaBound, e: xavier.montibert@plasmabound.com or m: +353 86 020 1037 or Micéal Whelan, Communications and Media Relations Manager, NovaUCD, e: miceal.whelan@ucd.ie.
Editors Notes
PlasmaBound’s goal is to enable industry to employ composite materials in lightweight vehicles, products and structures, as standard, at all price points. https://plasmabound.com
Act Venture Capital is an an early-stage venture capital firm that partners with founders starting out, and established teams scaling their growth. We have raised €500m across multiple funds to support this goal. We look for innovative, category-defining companies in large markets. We help founders build and scale these companies by leveraging the experience of backing over 200 founders. https://actventure.capital/
Atlantic Bridge is a global technology investment firm with over €1.3 billion under management across eight funds, investing in deep tech companies in Europe and the U.S. Atlantic Bridge supports portfolio companies in scaling internationally with a global investment team and offices across Dublin, London, Paris, Munich and Palo Alto. For more information visit https://www.abven.com