Genesis Backs Camcon with £500,000 Investment

Binary actuator pioneer to expand development facility, increase engineering team by 50 per cent

12 January, 2004 -- Cambridge, UK -- Camcon Technology, the inventor and developer of the Camcon® binary actuator, today announced that it has raised £500,000 investment from Hit & Run, the management company that maintains the interests of Genesis and Phil Collins.

Camcon has developed a ground breaking digital actuator that enables gases and liquids to be controlled in an extremely precise manner using minute amounts of electrical power. The company is working with industrial partners on a range of applications including engine management control, noise reduction for jet aircraft and deep-sea oil and gas extraction.

The new investment will enable Camcon, which is already profitable, to increase the size of its workshop facility at its Harston site, near Cambridge from 195 sq m to 350 sq m and develop dedicated labs for each of its industry partners. The company will also increase its development team by 50 per cent from 9 to 15 staff during the first half of 2004.

Hit & Run has a strong track record in backing early stage technology start-ups and typically manages 8 to 10 investments at any one time. It provided angel funding for Cambridge, UK based polymer display firm Cambridge Display Technology and Vari-Lite, a US developer of stage lighting and audio systems.

Further initial investments were made in Belland AG, a Swiss company specialising in recyclable plastics, and FMS, a company at the forefront of development of pumps and instruments used in arthroscopic surgery.

"Camcon is only just beginning to appreciate the range of applications and worldwide market opportunity for the digital actuator. This investment provides the financial flexibility for Camcon to invest in additional workshop facilities and development staff," said Wladyslaw Wygnanski, inventor of the Camcon® binary actuator and Managing Director, Camcon Technology.

"Hit & Run backed Camcon's chairman Danny Chapchal when he was chief executive of light emitting polymer developer CDT and subsequently brought a successful exist for investors. Like CDT, Camcon has developed a fundamental technology which has a worldwide market potential," said Robin Moore, managing director, Hit & Run Management.

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About Camcon
Based in Cambridge, UK, Camcon Technology is a small fast growing company focused on the research and development of the Camcon binary actuator. Camcon binary actuating technology has been 15 years in development and is the invention of Camcon founder Wladyslaw Wygnanski.

The high-speed, low energy consumption, low heat dissipation and long life characteristics of the Camcon binary actuator mean that it has applications in a whole new range of areas, as well as being a replacement for existing actuator and valve technologies.

Camcon Technology licenses its technology to customers, typically on a field-of-use basis. The company develops pre-production prototypes for customers on a consultancy basis and then hands over designs either to its customers to manufacture in volume, or to a manufacturing partner.

Camcon is funded by ACUS Management Partners, an active management venture capitalist that specialises in funding early stage technology companies. For further information see: www.acus.co.uk.