A Manchester-headquartered company which makes materials for flexible electronics such as bendable smart phone displays, foldable laptops and TV backlights, has raised almost $25m and completed a reverse takeover with a US business.
SmartKem has closed a £24.6m private placement financing drive after it completed a reverse acquisition with Parasol Investments Corporation, a public Delaware corporation.
The deal saw SmartKem become a wholly owned subsidiary of Parasol, which has now changed its name to SmartKem, Inc.
The directors of SmartKem, Ian Jenks, Robert Bahns, Dr Simon King, Klaas de Boer and Barbra Keck, have stayed with the expanded business, with Mr Jenks becoming chief executive and Mr Bahns taking on the role of chief financial officer.
Mr Jenks said: "The success of this financing surpassed our expectations, and we believe demonstrates investor confidence in SmartKem, our technology, product, current customer traction and the market opportunity.
"This financing will allow us to continue to scale production of our truFLEX inks, our electrical design automation tools and expand our foundry services."
SmartKem's truFLEX technology deposits organic ink on a substrate at a temperature as low as 80°C, enabling manufacturers to use a range of flexible plastic substrates using existing industry standard equipment and infrastructure.
SmartKem's transistor stacks are flexible, bendable, wearable and lightweight and can be used in a number of different applications, including bendable smart-phone displays, foldable laptops, TV backlights, curved automotive displays, colour ePaper displays, wearables, fingerprint and X-ray detectors as well as printed biosensors.
GP Nurmenkari Inc, as consulted by Intuitive Venture Partners, acted as the exclusive placement agent for the private placement. Montrose Capital Partners was the sponsor for the transaction.
