Versarien Plc (LON:VRS), the advanced materials engineering group, has provided the following update on developments at the Company as pipelines continue to improve following the appointment of Dr Stephen Hodge as CEO just over a year ago. As at 1 October 2023 the pipeline of opportunities stood at £1.6m, compared to £4.7m currently, of which commercial opportunities represents £1.6 m and grants £3.1 m.
The Company’s strategy continues to be the development of advanced materials, particularly graphene and related materials, using Versarien’s manufacturing-light operations, and the licensing of the Company’s technology.
Sector updates
Versarien’s focus sectors continue to be construction and leisure, however, it maintains the ability to be agile enough to re-align to other sectors that form part of Versarien’s commercial pipelines. These include sectors that can utilise the Company’s families of functional 2D inks (Graphinks™) and graphene-based thermoplastic, thermoset and elastomer compounds and masterbatches (Polygrene™).
Construction
Following the placing to raise gross proceeds of £550,000, announced on 24 July 2024, the Company placed orders for equipment that will provide an in-house construction testing capability that will help accelerate Versarien’s developments of graphene-based admixtures (Cementene™) and quality control of 3D printed products. Versarien is due to receive this equipment in November 2024 and has begun preparations to ensure maximum benefit can be derived from the equipment when it arrives.
In August, Versarien signed its first significant 3D construction printing (3DCP) contract with Building For Humanity CIC, for their flagship Charter Street project, in Accrington, UK. The contract, initially valued at approximately £200,000, is for the construction of the first of five housing blocks and a community hub. Thus far, the Versarien team has delivered renders based on architectural plans, is involved in bi-weekly design team meetings with architects, structural engineers, construction consultants and the client, and is currently building the CAD models for the first block. On-site 3DCP activities will likely start in 2025.
Versarien has also delivered a feasibility study for a high-profile cultural project, which is to be built using 3DCP technology. The next design phase of the project is expected to commence by the end of the year.
Although it is unlikely that graphene will feature as part of these two projects, the Company announced on 1 October 2024 that it had entered into a 12 month commercially funded project with Balfour Beatty, one of the UK’s largest construction companies, to develop graphene enhanced 3DCP materials and products.
This month, Versarien will be exhibiting at two major construction industry events hosted at the NEC, Birmingham – UK Construction Week 2024 (UKCW2024) and Highways UK.
At Highways UK, Versarien staff will be attending National Highways’ Roads Research Alliance meetings and Versarien will be exhibiting alongside Keyline Civils Specialist as a ‘Featured Supplier’. Versarien’s Head of 3DCP, Ben Harries, will also join Keyline at two client innovation days.
Whilst the Company is focused on being a manufacturing-light operation, developing new talent in-house remains a priority. Versarien was pleased to recently become an ‘Employee Partner’ with AccXel Construction School, local to Longhope, and has recently taken on its first Site Supervision Apprentice.
Leisure
The Company has recently generated Graphene-Wear™ ink sales to customers in Europe and South Korea, and Versarien’s sales partner GoToGym has made excellent progress in South America, with several companies undergoing fabric and wearer trials with Graphene-Wear™ garments. The Group is now engaged with 14 companies to supply Graphene-Wear™ inks for use in textile products.
Versarien’s Graphene-Wear™ footwear outsole rubber compounds have also been further improved for Flux Footwear, in the USA, with enhanced curing rates to enable larger volume production and diversifying the Group’s offering to more applications.
Technology Licencing
In March 2024, Versarien entered into a manufacturing licence agreement and a know-how licence and technical assistance agreement with Montana Química LTDA (“Montana”) in Brazil. Within two weeks of signing the agreement, Montana had sent staff to the UK for theoretical and practical training in graphene manufacture, application development and testing. Since then, Montana has been importing Versarien’s graphene materials into Brazil and Versarien is supporting Montana’s business development through technical assistance during virtual meetings with Montana clients in sectors such as construction, leisure and paints. In November 2024, Versarien staff will travel to Brazil to meet Montana’s clients in-person, whilst also attending the Graphene Forum 2024 hosted at SENAI CIMATEC.
The Company is currently engaged in discussions with various other parties, in other geographical locations, who are keen to distribute Versarien’s advanced materials and are interested to localise manufacturing using Versarien’s technologies and know-how.
R&D Updates
The Group’s R&D activity continues to progress with UK R&D staff located within the Cambridge Graphene Centre, University of Cambridge and Nanotechnology and Integrated Bioengineering Centre, Ulster University and the Company has renewed its membership of the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre at the University of Manchester as a Tier 2 partner for the sixth year.
Versarien is keeping abreast of changes to the future European advanced materials ecosystem driven by The Innovative Advanced Materials Initiative (“IAM-I”) by becoming an Industry Member. IAM-I has announced energy, mobility, construction and electronics as the initial four strategic research and innovation priority areas. This month, Dr Hodge will attend Graphene Week 2024 in Prague and present on a panel as part of the Graphene Flagship’s REACH/ECHA committee. Being involved in standards, regulation and nanosafety committees and projects continues to be essential in driving the commercialisation of graphene and other advanced materials. Grant applications remain key to supporting Versarien’s R&D. In addition to grants that Gnanomat can now apply for, Versarien has submitted a proposal as part of a large consortia for a Chips Joint Undertaking (Chips JU) grant and a further two European Innovation Council Pathfinder applications are underway.
Cambridge Graphene Limited (“CGL”)
CGL staff continue to support ongoing work in the Digital Roads of the Future project at the University of Cambridge. The main research fellow project involves developing geopolymers for rigid pavement production, accomplished by upcycling vast clay waste within the UK with reclaimed asphalt pavement and crushed concrete. CGL has recently completed the INNPRESSME project ‘Bioguard’ that enabled the team to further improve Versarien’s Graphinks™ offering by developing hybrid graphene/silver/cellulose ink formulations with significantly enhanced electrical conductivity with European partners CIDETEC and CEA. Near-field communication antennas capable of temperature sensing were printed on biodegradable paper substrates as a key demonstrator. The outputs will be presented by Versarien at the ‘Pitch Perfect and Boost the European Bioeconomy’ event in Brussels in December 2024.
2-DTech Limited (“2DT”)
2DT is involved in the Horizon Europe project ‘ICARE’ where it is playing a key role by developing protocols and supplying graphene materials used in products like mortars, concretes (including 3D printable materials), and rubber goods (tyres, footwear) in order to support the understanding of graphene’s life cycle and the potential exposure routes and toxicology to end users. This important project aims to create new systems that assess and predict the impacts of nanomaterials on brain health, preventing neurotoxicity.
2DT funded PhD student projects also continue at WMG, University of Warwick supervised by Prof. Tony McNally in the area of 2D material-based rubber composites and at University of Plymouth supervised by Dr Tina Joshi in the area of developing DNA-based aptamers for graphene biosensor applications.
Gnanomat (“GNA”)
GNA has been making significant progress with the support of the ICEX Trade and Investment grant, awarded in September 2023. This includes launching a new business line in the field of functional printing, offering a powerful avenue to bring its products to the market. GNA has established in-house manufacturing capabilities to supply large volumes of functional inks (in the range of one metric tonne per year). Initially, it has focused on developing new products for printed electronics, while also expanding into other applications such as electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, sensing, and security. During the development of this new business line, new know-how has led to the filing of a new patent.
GNA is actively seeking strategic collaborations with major international companies to accelerate the commercialisation of its products across various sectors. The GNA team has established co-development contracts with IRPC in Thailand and CBMM in Brazil, and continues to work towards securing further collaborations and commercially funded R&D projects.
Korea
Versarien will maintain its CVD graphene activity in Korea through partnerships and collaborations with MCK Tech Co. Ltd (“MCK Tech”) and existing investor GrapheneLab. Versarien’s CEO, Stephen Hodge will be visiting Korea later this month and giving an invited talk at “Carbon Korea 2024” in Seoul from 23-25 October, alongside Versarien exhibiting with MCK Tech. He will also attend and present at an ‘International Standardization of Advanced Materials Forum’ hosted by the Korea Carbon Industry Promotion Agency.
Commenting, Dr Stephen Hodge, Versarien CEO, stated: “I am delighted to report that Versarien is continuing to make significant strides in its commercial endeavours, building on our strong foundation of innovation and collaboration. Over the past year, we have seen encouraging growth across all our key markets, particularly construction. We are achieving our milestones as laid out in our turnaround strategy with the disposal of AAC Cyroma and sale of our CVD graphene assets. I am also optimistic that we will be able to progress the sale of Total Carbide.
“Our strategic partnerships with large UK and global players are pushing us to the forefront of delivering sustainable, high-performance solutions enabled by our advanced materials and technologies. We are proud to be working with companies that share our vision for a cleaner, more efficient future, and we are seeing the fruits of these collaborations materialise in new development contracts.”
