News: Xeros secures £8m in share placing
Innovative Rotherham company, Xeros Technology, has raised around £8m to support the commercialisation of its washing machine filtration technology.
Based on the Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP), Xeros is a Leeds University spin-out that has developed a patented system using a unique method of special polymer beads rather than the usual large amounts of fresh water to clean clothes.
The firm has moved to an IP rich and asset light business model and pitches itself as the developer and licensor of technologies which reduce the environmental impact and cost of clothing and fabrics.
The latest investment comes from a successful share offer and will help the company bring its patented filtration system, XFiltra, to market. The system removes microplastic fibres from laundry effluent. The device lasts for the lifetime of the washing machine and does not use disposable filter cartridges.
£2.5m of the investment has been set aside for commercialisation. £1.5m is needed to ensure that the Company is sufficiently capitalised to absorb the impact of delays caused by COVID-19.
Xeros said in a stement to the stock exchange: "The Company is working with a leading product design consultancy to produce, in Q2 2021, a standardised product design which can be integrated into all domestic washing machines with a view to then running consumer field trials during 2021 with a number of OEMs with whom the Company is already in discussion. With successful field trials completed by the end of 2021, the Directors would anticipate being in a position to secure first commercial licensing revenues in a domestic application in 2023."
"Funds will be deployed in employing additional technical capability to work with OEM partners, to further increase the patent portfolio around XFiltra and to extend its work on filtration standards with regulatory bodies in Europe to India, China and the United States, as well as significantly increasing the Company's marketing activity."
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Washing textiles containing synthetic fibres, such as nylon or polyester, is a major source of microplastic pollution. Globally, it accounts for 35% of primary microplastics released into the oceans every year. As many as 700,000 microplastic fibres can be released in the wastewater from a single load of domestic laundry.
Tests in 2020, which were designed to capture microfibres in a mixed wash of synthetic and synthetic/cotton blend garments, show that XFiltra captured 78% of microfibres released during each wash cycle.
Other IP centres on water saving XOrb and XDrum technologies used in commercial and domestic washing machines. Deals have been signed in the leather and denim processing industries
Mark Nichols, CEO of Xeros, said: "This placing enables the development and commercialisation by licensees of our filtration technology platform, XFiltra, in the domestic washing machine market where there is now regulatory and consumer pressure to stop some 280,000,000 kilograms of microfibres from washing clothes reaching the environment. These fibres are now to be found across the trophic range. It will also finance growth in the number of licensing contracts and high margin revenues in our XOrb/XDrum technology platform which radically reduce environmental impacts and costs across large parts of the clothing and fabric lifecycle.
"The support of existing and new shareholders in delivering these environmental improvements in global scale industries is highly valued by both the Company and the increasing numbers of stakeholders who will now benefit."
Xeros website
Images: Xeros
Based on the Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP), Xeros is a Leeds University spin-out that has developed a patented system using a unique method of special polymer beads rather than the usual large amounts of fresh water to clean clothes.
The firm has moved to an IP rich and asset light business model and pitches itself as the developer and licensor of technologies which reduce the environmental impact and cost of clothing and fabrics.
The latest investment comes from a successful share offer and will help the company bring its patented filtration system, XFiltra, to market. The system removes microplastic fibres from laundry effluent. The device lasts for the lifetime of the washing machine and does not use disposable filter cartridges.
£2.5m of the investment has been set aside for commercialisation. £1.5m is needed to ensure that the Company is sufficiently capitalised to absorb the impact of delays caused by COVID-19.
Xeros said in a stement to the stock exchange: "The Company is working with a leading product design consultancy to produce, in Q2 2021, a standardised product design which can be integrated into all domestic washing machines with a view to then running consumer field trials during 2021 with a number of OEMs with whom the Company is already in discussion. With successful field trials completed by the end of 2021, the Directors would anticipate being in a position to secure first commercial licensing revenues in a domestic application in 2023."
"Funds will be deployed in employing additional technical capability to work with OEM partners, to further increase the patent portfolio around XFiltra and to extend its work on filtration standards with regulatory bodies in Europe to India, China and the United States, as well as significantly increasing the Company's marketing activity."
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Washing textiles containing synthetic fibres, such as nylon or polyester, is a major source of microplastic pollution. Globally, it accounts for 35% of primary microplastics released into the oceans every year. As many as 700,000 microplastic fibres can be released in the wastewater from a single load of domestic laundry.
Tests in 2020, which were designed to capture microfibres in a mixed wash of synthetic and synthetic/cotton blend garments, show that XFiltra captured 78% of microfibres released during each wash cycle.
Other IP centres on water saving XOrb and XDrum technologies used in commercial and domestic washing machines. Deals have been signed in the leather and denim processing industries
Mark Nichols, CEO of Xeros, said: "This placing enables the development and commercialisation by licensees of our filtration technology platform, XFiltra, in the domestic washing machine market where there is now regulatory and consumer pressure to stop some 280,000,000 kilograms of microfibres from washing clothes reaching the environment. These fibres are now to be found across the trophic range. It will also finance growth in the number of licensing contracts and high margin revenues in our XOrb/XDrum technology platform which radically reduce environmental impacts and costs across large parts of the clothing and fabric lifecycle.
"The support of existing and new shareholders in delivering these environmental improvements in global scale industries is highly valued by both the Company and the increasing numbers of stakeholders who will now benefit."
Xeros website
Images: Xeros
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