MATTHEW BYATT
Managing Partner
Cambridge, UK, 2nd March 2022 – Paragraf, the UK-founded pioneer and global leader of graphene-based electronics technologies and products, announces today the close of its $60m Series B round.
The round is being led by New Science Ventures, a US deep tech investor, investing in novel scientific approaches in the Life Sciences and Information Technology sectors, which is very well aligned with Paragraf’s growth aspirations. The round included current investors Parkwalk, Amadeus Capital Partners, IQ Capital and Molten Ventures, as well as new investors British Patient Capital through its Future Fund: Breakthrough and US based, In-Q-Tel. The funding will help the company scale the business as it continues its international growth by increasing its sales and technical prowess in the UK, US, EU and Asia, boosting its R&D capabilities to advance its technology and product development capacity, and expanding its manufacturing infrastructure.
Graphene is a long-awaited alternative to silicon in the electronics devices market as it’s one of the most conductive materials in the world – incredibly strong yet flexible, capable of withstanding very high electrical powers, with great thermal integrity. Paragraf is the first company worldwide to deliver a scalable approach to graphene electronic device manufacturing, by utilising its unique contamination-free technology. The company’s current products, the Graphene Hall Effect Sensor range, are already being used in a wide range of applications across the aerospace, semiconductor, healthcare, automotive, scientific research, industrial and quantum computing spaces. In addition, the material offers positive environmental impacts such as reduced power consumption.
The company has already collaborated with world-renowned organisations such as CERN, the National Physical Laboratory, and Rolls Royce. Paragraf’s next breakthrough product, a graphene-based biosensor that’s targeted at transforming clinical point of care in the medical industry, is in the pipeline.
Dr Simon Thomas, CEO and Co-founder of Paragraf, said:
“Our increasing desire for continually improving electronic device performance paired with the absolute necessity to reduce our power requirements, and hence carbon footprints, demands new technology solutions – next generation materials will be at the heart of this. At Paragraf we are proud to be leading the way, bringing the first 2D material, graphene, into the electronic product supply chain, through our first products, allowing its transformational, game changing properties and benefits to be harnessed.”
Somu Subramaniam, Managing Partner, New Science Ventures said:
“Developing and manufacturing at scale, graphene-based sensors and electronics devices, has been a major challenge to industry. Paragraf has met that challenge and is delivering commercial products with order of magnitude improvements in product performance. We are thrilled to lead this financing and to join Simon and the Paragraf team in building a company focused on addressing some of today’s greatest needs.”
Matthew Byatt, Managing Partner, Acuity Advisors said:
“We are delighted to have assisted Paragraf on this key milestone. This is the largest semiconductor Series B transaction to date in the UK. The market opportunity for Paragraf is immense, and we look forward to the continued success of one of the UK’s champions in this space.”
“We would like to thank Matthew and the Acuity team for helping us execute this landmark transaction for Paragraf. Acuity’s unique expertise in the semiconductor industry and valuable support throughout the process has enabled us to find a value-add partner and the capital to accelerate on our mission to bring to market graphene-based electronic devices.”
DR SIMON THOMAS | CEO
Paragraf
Matthew is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Acuity and leads the Acuity Advisors’ Deeptech practice.
Matthew has held senior leadership and corporate finance positions with some of the UK’s most successful and influential technology and consultancy companies. Roles with ARM, McKinsey and Cadence have given Matthew an exceptional insight into the world’s most successful businesses and a number of the UK’s eminent start-ups, underpinning his success at Acuity.
Matthew has considerable experience across a broad range of technology sectors throughout the UK, US and Asia, ranging from nanotechnology, semiconductor and cleantech to digital media and internet businesses. It’s experience that has given him a robust, well-developed and international network. Having also run and successfully exited his own business, Matthew has a deep understanding of the financial and emotional aspects of this demanding process, bringing a unique and authoritative perspective to each business sale.
One of Matthew’s strengths is understanding complex technical value propositions, one of the benefits of training as an electronic engineer. He gets to the heart of what drives a company’s value and communicates this persuasively to potential buyers and investors. Matthew understands a buyer’s motivation intuitively and delivers a compelling rationale for why a business sale should be of strategic interest. His insight consistently yields higher deal values and results in great successes for his clients.