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Key Technologies, formerly STS International, has raised £1.8m by floating on Investbx, the West Midlands-based virtual stock exchange, which will be used to fund acquisitions. Key, which has 232 employees and £18.7m annual sales, operates at four sites around the UK including its base at Cradley Heath.
Key is owned by directors of private investment firm Grove Industries and management. David Grove, chairman, said: “The financing we’ve secured through Investbx means the company can accelerate growth and build shareholder value.” The flotation will add credibility to the Investbx operation: Teamworks Karting, the Birmingham indoor karting business, floated in February 2008.
Investbx chief executive Sue Summers said: “Having a company of this nature and prestige join Investbx is excellent news. It demonstrates the Investbx concept is perfectly suited to securing finance for SMEs at this stage of their growth.”
Trevor Middleton, a director at Grove Industries, said there was no shortage of businesses in the region looking to progress through expansion backed by new ownership and finance.
www.sts-motors.com
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A three-year collaborative research project, funded partially by the Technology Strategy Board and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), has delivered first-generation thermo-photovoltaic (TPV) cells with energy conversion efficiencies of up to 12% (compared to 9% for existing, commercially available devices).
The consortium partners in the project are CIP Technologies (CIP) of Martlesham Heath, Ipswich (which manufactures photonic hybrid integrated circuits and indium phosphide-based optoelectronic chips, devices, arrays and modules for the communications and defence markets), III-V substrate maker Wafer Technology Ltd of Milton Keynes (a member of the IQE plc group of companies), and the University of Oxford’s Physics Department. On the TPV project, CIP is responsible for epitaxial growth and the fabrication of both devices and fully packaged TPV modules, Wafer Technology has developed a new range of low-cost InP substrates, and Oxford performs cell design and device testing.
www.ciphotonics.com - www.wafertech.co.uk - www.physics.ox.ac.uk
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The 2008 Deloitte & Touche Fast 50 UK list was published last week – and it provides a fascinating insight into the state of British technology and its various sectors. The fastest growth has been particularly marked in mainstream telecoms and web hosting services, for example. All of the companies are listed in the Gibson Index.
1) Thunderhead Ltd: Software vendor - 28558%
2) Ubisense Ltd: Real-time location systems - 15324%
3) picoChip Semiconductors Ltd: chip research - 4483%
4) OB10 Ltd: B2B invoicing network - 3488%
5) Bigmouthmedia Ltd: Digital marketing agency - 3357%
6) TH_NK Ltd: Digital agency - 3137%
7) Broadbean Technology Advertising Ltd: distribution services - 2882%
8) Content and Code Ltd: Software - 2855%
9) Nexus Oncology Ltd: Clinical research - 2614%
10) RapidSwitch Ltd: Internet hosting - 2437%
11) Digital Window Ltd: Online marketing solutions - 2319%
12) Redtray Ltd: e-Learning solutions - 2056%
13) Coast Digital Ltd: Digital marketing agency - 1948%
14) Greenlight Search Ltd: marketing agency - 1749%
15) Opti-cal Survey Equipment Ltd: Optical survey equipment - 1664%
16) Assima Technology Ltd: solutions - 1615%
17) ByBox Holdings Ltd: Logistics - 1340%
18) Daisy Communications Ltd: Communications - 1202%
19) Bloxx IT Ltd: security - 1182%
20) Excelian Ltd: IT consultancy - 1175%
21) Miniclip Ltd: Gaming - 1171%
22) Comtec Enterprises Ltd: ICT solutions - 1052%
23) CSR plc: Wireless devices - 1027%
24) Sensornet Ltd: Fibre optic sensing solutions - 1000%
25) Xtreme Business Solutions Ltd: Cabling and telecoms suppliers - 997%
26) UK Digital Cameras Ltd: Online retailer - 970%
27) Dezrez Services Ltd: Software - 965%
28) UKFast Internet Ltd: hosting - 894%
29) Sponge Ltd: Mobile marketing agency - 854%
30) Rocela Ltd: Software - 844%
31) O-bitTelecom Ltd: Telecommunications - 829%
32) Memset Internet Ltd: hosting - 823%
33) Dynamic Change Ltd: Software - 817%
34) Wavex Technology Ltd: IT services - 816%
35) Widget UK Ltd: IT distributor - 800%
36) Bluhalo Ltd: Digital marketing agency - 779%
37) How Splendid Ltd: Web design agency - 779%
38) iMeta Technologies Ltd: Software - 734%
39) Chess plc: Telecommunications - 723%
40) StaffPlan Ltd: Software - 704%
41) Switch Media plc: Internet services - 682%
42) YouGov plc: Online research - 667%
43) 2ergo Ltd: Mobile marketing - 624%
44) Virtual IT Ltd: IT services - 611%
45) Mobile Commerce Ltd: Mobile search - 590%
46) Valueworks Ltd: Internet software services - 589%
47) Lagan Software Ltd: software - 560%
48) Bluefin Solutions Ltd: SAP solutions - 549%
49) Griffin Internet Ltd: IP products - 523%
50) Entanet International Ltd: Voice and data connectivity services - 514%
www.fast50.co.uk
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