Fieldwork Robotics raises £675,000

Reach - a non-regulatory announcement

AIM: FIPP

19 March 2021

Frontier IP Group Plc

("Frontier IP" or the "Group") 

Portfolio news - Fieldwork Robotics raises £675,000 to accelerate development of harvesting robots

Frontier IP, a specialist in commercialising intellectual property, today announces that portfolio company Fieldwork Robotics ("Fieldwork" or the "Company") has raised £675,000 through an equity fundraising from existing and new investors.

The proceeds will be used to support development of the Company's flexible agricultural robot technology for harvesting soft fruit and vegetables. They will allow Fieldwork to accelerate scale up of a raspberry harvesting robot to bring it to market. The funding also means the Company, a spin out from the University of Plymouth, is able to embark on the development of a cauliflower-harvesting robot in collaboration with Bonduelle, one of the world's largest vegetable producers.

In addition to the fundraising, University of Plymouth Enterprises Limited, the University of Plymouth's commercial consultancy and contract arm, has converted £44,000 of patent costs into equity. The funding round means Frontier IP's equity stake in the business is now 22.2 per cent.

An alpha prototype of the raspberry harvester is to enter further field trials in July this year, subject to COVID-19 restrictions. Fieldwork will then focus on preparing the robot design for manufacture.

Fieldwork's technology is designed to be flexible and modular so it can be adapted to harvesting different soft fruit and vegetables, and the Company is progressing with further applications for agriculture.

The technology's potential has been recognised by Innovate UK, which awarded the Company a £547,250 Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund grant in November 2018 to accelerate development of its technology. This was part of a £671,484 project, whose other partners included the University of Plymouth and the National Physical Laboratory. 

Innovate UK has since awarded a further three grants to the Company totalling £303,000 to accelerate development through the COVID-19 pandemic and a £50,000 Agritech-East Grant from Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority to support the cost reduction of specific components.

Rui Andres, Fieldwork Robotics Chief Executive Officer, said: "This fundraising allows us to start the work with Bonduelle and to accelerate the development of our raspberry harvesting robot. The investment demonstrates the strong interest in the technology at a time when growers all over the world are struggling to recruit labour."

Neil Crabb, Frontier IP Chief Executive Officer, said: "I am delighted with the strong progress Fieldwork has made despite the challenges posed by COVID-19. This investment is an important step forward in allowing the company to achieve its ambitions."

ENQUIRIES

ABout frontier IP

Frontier IP unites science and commerce by identifying strong intellectual property and accelerating its development through a range of commercialisation services. A critical part of the Group's work is involving relevant industry partners at an early stage of development to ensure technology meets real world demands and needs.

The Group looks to build and grow a portfolio of equity stakes and licence income by taking an active involvement in spin-out companies, including support for fund raising and collaboration with relevant industry partners at an early stage of development.

Frontier IP is the commercialisation partner for the University of Plymouth.

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF PLYMOUTH

The University of Plymouth is renowned for high quality, internationally leading education, research and innovation.

With a mission to Advance Knowledge and Transform Lives, Plymouth is a *top 50 research university with clusters of world class research across a wide range of disciplines including marine science and engineering, medicine, cybersecurity and psychology. A three-time winner of the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education, most recently in 2020 in respect of its pioneering research on microplastics pollution in the oceans and its impact on the environment and changing behaviour, the University continues to grow in stature and reputation.

It has a strong track record for teaching and learning excellence and has one of the highest numbers of National Teaching Fellows of any UK university. With over 19,000 students, and a further 9,500 studying for a Plymouth degree at partner institutions in the UK and around the world, and over 135,000 alumni pursuing their chosen careers globally, it has a growing global presence.

http://www.plymouth.ac.uk

* Research Fortnight Research Power League Table 2014.

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