Ilika PLC (AIM:IKA, OTCQX:ILIKF) CEO Graeme Purdy talked with Proactive about the company’s planned fundraise of up to £3.5 million, including a £500,000 retail offer, to support its key battery technologies—Stereax and Goliath.
Purdy explained that £1.1 million of the proceeds would back the final phase of tech transfer and commercialisation efforts for Stereax, which is being licensed to Cirtec Medical.
Cirtec is making strong progress with initial production batches at its Lowell, Massachusetts, facility. “It’s a very intense period of activity for us concerning Stereax,” said Purdy, highlighting Cirtec’s video shared at Capital Markets Day that outlines future commercial applications.
The remaining funds will support Ilika’s Goliath programme, focused on scaling up prototype solid-state batteries. “We are now testing the next batch, which actually are five times larger than the 2Ah prototypes we released last year,” he said, noting these 10Ah batteries move the company closer to meaningful commercial testing.
The fundraise aims to maintain momentum across both platforms and support ongoing customer engagement and validation processes.
Proactive: Graeme, you've announced that you plan to raise up to £3.5 million, including a £500,000 retail offer. Tell us more about the fundraise?
Graeme Purdy: Well, it's a financial shot in the arm for Ilika really to push us along the journey on which we've embarked. First of all, we're looking for about £1.1 million to support the commercialization of the Stereax program and in particular to support the final bit of tech transfer that we're doing together with Cirtec Medical, to whom we've licensed the Stereax manufacturing. Also, for a bit of support around testing, validation and then customer support thereafter.
The rest of the fundraise is really to allow us to complete the development of Goliath technology. We're pushing it through the next prototype—design and build activities, some testing equipment that we need for the batches of Goliath batteries that are coming through, and carrying out that testing program. And then, of course, customer support and engagement.
Proactive: So maybe going back to the Stereax department, you say it's going to support the commercial launch and ramp up. Where are you at with Stereax at this point?
Graeme Purdy: Yeah. Well, it's a very intense period of activity for us with respect to Stereax. Cirtec are making great progress with pushing through the engineering lots so that the first batches of products are at their facility in Lowell in Massachusetts. And actually, I would commend people to take a look at the video that Cirtec have submitted to us as part of Capital Markets Day that we ran on Tuesday. There's some great content there about how they see that market developing and the commercial applications for the product.
Proactive: Okay, and then Goliath? We've chatted a lot about Goliath this year, Graeme, because you have hit a number of significant milestones. What's next for Goliath?
Graeme Purdy: Well, Goliath is in the middle of a test program of our P1.5. Remember, that's the next prototype to be released. Last year, we released our 2Ah P1 prototypes for customer evaluation. We spoke quite recently about the customer validation that we've had for that product. And we are now testing the next batch, which actually are five times larger than the 2Ah prototypes we released last year. So they are 10Ah batteries. That will allow us to then send out those batteries for further evaluation. As they get larger, of course, customers are getting more excited because we're getting towards the size where they can start building them into packs for larger-scale evaluation.