A subsidiary of FTSE 100 tech firm Halma PLC (LON:HLMA) has started the commercial roll-out of SirenBW – a rapid water testing kit which uses a technology developed by Frontier IP Group PLC’s (LON:FIPP) investee company, Molendotech.
Frontier IP holds a 14.1% stake in Molendotech, a spinout from the University of Plymouth.
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It can sometimes take up to two days to assess the quality of recreational water because samples need to be sent back to a laboratory for analysis, but SirenBW can return results on-site and within 20 minutes.
The commercial roll-out will focus on the UK and Ireland initially and include the establishment of a number of demonstrator sites.
“We're delighted with the rapid progress the agreement with Palintest is making,” said Frontier chief executive Neil Crabb.
“It has taken less than 18 months from when Molendotech was first incorporated to the full commercial rollout of the first product based on its novel intellectual property. We are confident the company will continue to make strong progress.”
Further applications are being developed with Palintest to leverage the real-time availability of pathogen risk in water.
Molendotech is also working with other commercial partners in food and beverage production. Tests under development include those for detecting pathogens on fresh produce and in the water used to irrigate it.