New round of investment funding offered for high-tech manufacturing

Evergreen private investment firm Manifex has announced the opening of its second round of investment funding to help start-ups commercialise their high-tech products.

Funding will be available to support companies that have developed technology in the advanced materials and advanced manufacturing sectors.

Manifex was established in early 2014 and to date has been working with companies being incubated and assisted by VCAMM, the Victorian Centre for Advanced Materials Manufacturing. VCAMM incubates companies and their technologies from very early conception through to investable businesses.

Manifex Managing Director Iain Ralph said its first round of investment is proving very successful and its Asian and local investors were now looking at more opportunities and ventures in which to invest.

“As an evergreen fund we have the ability to raise capital as required to support the needs of our growing portfolio of firms to facilitate the commercialisation of their technology and assist in the ongoing growth of the business,” he said.

At the announcement of the new round of funding, Iain Ralph and Brad Dunstan, CEO of VCAMM, indicated that further investment capital will be made available to VCAMM incubated companies.

Manifex is co-located with Scoresby-based VCAMM, which had provided critical assistance over a number of years to companies that received capital injections as part of Manifex’s first round of funding.

Two of these were Cytomatrix in Geelong and Circa Group in Coburg, which have developed world-first technology in their respective fields and now benefit from Manifex’s ongoing support.

Manifex’s interest is often in establishing an early relationship with a company that’s working with VCAMM, making it easy to “pass the baton” (between VCAMM and Manifex) for ongoing commercial investment at an appropriate stage of commercialisation.

“Australia has some great minds and great opportunities for advanced manufacturing,” said Ralph. “Manifex and its investors have a knowledge and passion for new product businesses and I believe that with the injection of appropriate early-stage investment to qualified ventures, Australia will realise substantial economic dividends.”

Victorian success stories Cytomatrix Ltd has produced the most scalable solution to hematopoietic stem cell expansion and is eyeing the global transplant market, which is valued at more than $1.5 billion. This can be doubled if the technology is also used as an adjunct to chemotherapy. As a stem cell therapeutics company, Cytomatrix’s technology is designed for patients with leukaemia and other indications that require treatments such as bone marrow or cord blood transplants. Part of its technology suite includes a short-nanofibre production machine and platform developed by Cytomatrix and partners Austeng and Deakin University. This project received a 2014 Excellence Award in the category ‘Research and Development/Innovation’ at this year’s Victorian Engineering Excellence Awards. Circa, which was incubated by VCAMM, has developed the world’s first continuous process for the manufacture of an important and highly flexible molecule from waste cellulose. This molecule is a platform chemical that can be used in a wide range of multibillion-dollar markets. Founded four years ago by Tony Duncan and Warwick Raverty when they were working out of a home garage with ‘beakers and pipes’, Circa was recently able to move into its own manufacturing facility and expand the company staff. It has already started processing orders from large chemical companies in Europe.

Circa’s manufacturing facility includes a reactor that can turn waste straw and sawdust into high-value chemicals.

“Both Cytomatrix and Circa have been recipients of targeted support by VCAMM over a number of years while their technology matured. Both have benefited from significant financial support during this period. VCAMM’s interest in both companies has been acquired by Manifex and both have and will continue to benefit from additional investment by Manifex,” said Iain Ralph, who is also a director on the Cytomatrix and Circa Group boards.

“We have liaised with many different potential investors and the ones we’ve had traction with are generally people who are actively involved in new businesses or they are successful entrepreneurs themselves.

“Manifex will continue to look for high growth technology venture investment opportunities. We maintain an ongoing relationship with VCAMM and its associated network of research institutions and projects for this purpose,” he said. “Of course, VCAMM is continuing its mission to incubate opportunities and is a great resource for technological innovators in Victoria.”