24 August 2023  

Tekcapital Plc

("Tekcapital", the "Company" or the "Group")

Portfolio Company Update

Tekcapital Plc (AIM: TEK, the UK intellectual property investment group focused on transforming university technologies into valuable products that can improve people's lives, is pleased to provide a comprehensive snapshot of Guident Ltd's ("Guident") significant achievements over the past year.  

Elevating Core Solution Portfolio

Remote Monitor and Control Centre (RMCC) Enhancements

Guident is upgrading its Remote Monitor and Control Centre with an enhanced user interface, resilient fault tolerance upgrades and an innovative steering wheel integration with practical features. Guident's consistent advancement aligns with monthly milestones, positioning it well for a customer acceptance test scheduled for early fall 2023 with its first major customer Jacksonville Transportation Authority ("JTA"), followed by its inaugural commercial deployment at the Boca Raton Innovation Campus (BRiC). This marks the transition from the proof-of-concept phase to commercial deployment.

Guident's HQ will move to BRiC and deploy the RMCC with the best-in-class video wall displays and a visualization system for the RMCC dashboards. The image below shows the RMCC rendering with three Remote-Control Operator (RCO) stations.  

AI Patent for Real-time Monitor and Control

In June 2023, Guident achieved a milestone by receiving notice of allowance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office related to its patent for AI methods and systems that facilitate near real-time, intelligent remote monitor and control of autonomous vehicles, robots, and drones. This achievement amplifies Guident's patent portfolio, which now boasts 9 patents, reinforcing its commitment to ensuring the safety and security of autonomous operations.

The Regenerative Shock Absorber

In a significant leap, Guident secured a paid proof of concept agreement with a tier-1 tire manufacturer. This collaboration resulted in successful tests and detailed reports for the regenerative shock absorber. This technology aims to manufacture electromagnetic regenerative shock absorbers with high energy densities that can recover a vehicle's vibration energy, otherwise lost due to road irregularities, vehicle accelerations, and braking.

Expansive Customer Engagements

Guident remains committed to its collaborative efforts with the Boca Raton Innovation Campus, progressing with constructing Guident's headquarters at BRiC and advancing with the autonomous shuttle service on campus. This venture solidifies Guident's presence as a key player in the autonomous vehicle ecosystem in the U.S.

Guident's partnership with the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA), the largest transportation authority in the U.S., is thriving, evidenced by a  monthly recurring purchase of its teleoperation software solution. Guident is executing a successful integration for JTA with one of their AVs at the Armsdale Test and Learn Center.

The sales pipeline has experienced remarkable growth over the past year, adapting a direct and indirect sales approach, opening a wealth of exciting opportunities for Guident in the immediate future.

Space Florida Grant Award

Guident and Novelsat, a global leader in content connectivity, partnered earlier this year to develop an innovative always-on, ubiquitous remote monitor and control solution for autonomous vehicles and devices. Guident has been awarded funding for this project under the Florida-Israel Innovation Partnership program by Space Florida. The grant is awarded to develop a safer RMCC for monitoring, management, and backup control of terrestrial autonomous vehicles with satellite communications.

Strategic Collaborations Drive Growth

In the past year, a critical strategic emphasis was fostering partnerships with autonomous vehicle (AV) manufacturers and impactful ecosystem allies. The focus on this topic has significantly increased Guident's patent portfolio, evolving it from a local to a global presence. Leveraging diverse AV fleets for promising projects has increased new sales opportunities and demonstrated remarkable sales potential.

One outstanding partnership was with Auve Tech, a prominent autonomous vehicle system provider from Estonia, catering to a client base across Europe and Japan. On March 15, 2023, Guident signed a strategic partnership agreement with Auve Tech with the shared objective of revolutionizing autonomous vehicle solutions. This collaboration  is focussed around Auve's MiCa autonomous shuttles, which Auve believe are poised to redefine local mobility solutions.

Leadership Engagements and Industry Presence

Showcasing Guident's Vision

Guident's dedicated team participated in six high-profile industry networking events and podcasts, including Move America Austin, CES Las Vegas, Mobile World Congress Barcelona, CoMotion Miami, Autonomous Vehicle Day Jacksonville, and the American Council of the Blind Sunday Edition podcast.

Guident's CEO engaged in meaningful discussions on AV safety, accessibility, and societal impact during the American Council of the Blind Sunday Edition Podcast-Guident's nurturing relationships with disability community organizations to create impactful AV mobility solutions.

Guident's exhibition at the CoMotion industry event in Miami, and the Autonomous Vehicle Day in Jacksonville, underscored technology demonstration and industry engagement.

National U.S. Autonomous Vehicle Day

Guident's National Autonomous Vehicle Day events have gained remarkable traction. In 2022, Guident demonstrated leadership by hosting the National U.S. Autonomous Vehicle Day (#AVDay) on May 31^st. The event, held at BRiC in Boca Raton, Florida, not only celebrated technological advancements but also paved the way for implementing autonomous vehicle technology. This year marked the second installment of the event. The 2023 AV Day was even more impressive, combining in-person attendance with live streaming. Collaborating with the Jacksonville Transportation Authority as co-hosts, the event was at the Armsdale Test and Learn Center in Jacksonville, Florida. The AV Day 2023 event brought together 259 industry attendees. Central to the event's success was the dedicated AV Day LinkedIn profile, engaging audiences and channelling traffic to the official website, AutonomousVehicleDay.com. The event received support from 11 sponsors and featured ten technology demonstrators and nine speakers.

The Market

According to Triton Market Research ^"the last mile AV autonomous vehicle delivery market is expected to reach US$41.7 billion by 2028 with a CAGR of 19%. Contactless or "touch-free" delivery is in high demand since the COVID-19 pandemic, and Guident believes this increased demand will accelerate the roll-out of land-based delivery drones for pedestrians, food and medicines to improve their availability and reduce the costs of these deliveries.

About Guident

Guident commercializes patented technology to enable safer autonomous vehicles and devices by providing industry-leading AV remote monitoring, control, assistance, and passenger support services. To learn more, please visit www.guident.com.

About Tekcapital plc

Tekcapital creates value from investing in new, university-developed discoveries that can enhance people's lives and provides a range of technology transfer services to help organisations evaluate and commercialise new technologies. Tekcapital is quoted on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange (AIM: symbol TEK) and is headquartered in the UK. For more information, please visit www.tekcapital.com.

LEI: 213800GOJTOV19FIFZ85

Tekcapital owns 100% of the share capital of Guident Ltd. Guident Ltd. owns approximately 91% of Guident Corp., its US subsidiary.

For further information, please contact:

Tim Thompson/Andrea Seymour/Fergus Mellon

Forward Looking Statements

This press release is for informational purposes only. The information herein does not constitute investment advice nor an offer to invest and may contain statements related to our future business and financial performance and future events or developments involving Guident or Tekcapital that may constitute forward-looking statements. These statements may be identified by words such as "expect," "look forward to," "anticipate" "intend," "plan," "believe," "seek," "estimate," "will," "project" or words of similar meaning. We may also make forward-looking statements in other reports, in presentations, in material delivered to customers, stakeholders and in press releases. In addition, our representatives may from time to time make oral forward-looking statements. Such statements may be based on the current expectations and certain assumptions of Guident' and/or Tekcapital's management. Please note that these are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and factors, including, but not limited to those described in various disclosures. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialise, or should underlying expectations not occur or assumptions prove incorrect, actual results, performance or achievements of Guident or Tekcapital may vary materially from those described explicitly or implicitly in the relevant forward-looking statement. Neither Guident nor Tekcapital intends, nor assumes any obligation, to update or revise these forward-looking statements in light of developments which differ from those anticipated.