Tekcapital PLC (LON:TEK) has raised US$1.1mln through a share placing to fund the commercialisation of its portfolio, while also announcing the appointment of a chairman to the board of one of its companies.
The investment firm, which focuses on developing intellectual property (IP) from university technologies, said it had raised the US$1.1mln figure from the placing of around 11.7mln new shares at 7.5p each, a 12% discount to its last close price of 8.5p.
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The proceeds of the placing would be used to continue development and commercialisation of technologies in the company’s portfolio, with the new shares to be admitted to trading on AIM on 16 October.
In a separate statement, Tekcapital said its portfolio company, Guident, had appointed Harald Braun as its chairman.
Braun has previously held president and chief executive positions in the telecommunications industry, including at Siemens Networks USA (NYSE:SI) and Aviat Networks (NASDAQ:AVNW) while also serving as a senior executive at Nokia Siemens Networks, North America.
Guident itself is developing a patented technology that has the potential to enable software development for the control of autonomous vehicles and drones via apps and the use of artificial intelligence.
Dr Clifford Gross, chairman of Tekcapital, said Braun had “the skills and experience necessary to commercialize Guident's patented technology”, adding that the autonomous vehicle market was expected to be worth US$65.3bn by 2027.
Braun added that with the emergence of 5G mobile network technology, use cases and the foundation for "Vehicle to anything" communication were established and global market momentum was “rapidly building up”.