Frontier IP Group PLC (AIM:FIPP) announced that its portfolio company CamGraPhIC has raised £1.6mln through an equity funding round from existing and new investors.
It values the University of Cambridge spinout at £5.6mln, bringing total funds raised so far to £3.4mlnl, including a loan facility announced by Frontier IP in July.
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Of the money in the equity funding round, £1.5mln was raised through investment platform Wealth Club.
Frontier IP holds a 20.8% equity stake valued at £1.5mln, holds £1mln of loan notes and has advanced £200,000 under loan agreements agreed in 2019 and 2020.
Proceeds from the funding round will be used to accelerate the development and scale-up of the CamGraPhIC's graphene-based photonics technology for more efficient optical transceivers.
These have the potential to become a core enabling technology for the high-speed data and telecommunications needed for 5G networks and beyond, Frontier IP said.
Current versions of the technology have indicated speeds of up to 100Gbps per lane, operation across multiple wavebands and very low energy loss. Their speed is about twice that achieved in laboratory conditions by equivalent technologies, while they consume at least 75% less energy.
The underlying graphene-photonics technology, which has a host of further applications, is being developed under licence from the University of Cambridge.
"We believe CamGraPhIC could transform data and telecommunications. The technology it is developing has the potential to become a core enabler of the high-speed networks of the future,” said Frontier IP chief executive Neil Crabb.
Shares rose 2% to 109.3p on Thursday morning.