Nujira today announced that it has completed further funding of £10 million, to accelerate development of its handset technology and support expansion into a new market as well as general commercial development of Cellular Infrastructure and TV Broadcast sectors. The round included Environmental Technologies Fund (ETF), a new investor, as well as existing investors Bank Invest, 3i, Amadeus, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and private investors.
Commenting, Nujira CEO Tim Haynes said, "Nujira is making excellent progress in its established markets demonstrating the real benefits that our solutions deliver; in the past year we have announced significant customer engagements for our cellular base station, broadcast transmitter and handset technologies. More recently we have identified military communications as a market with considerable potential for our CoolteqTM products and have already delivered hardware to customers. The new investment provides Nujira the opportunity to continue with the commercialisation of its Coolteq products, and to promote our technology into new markets."
Poul Erik Schou-Pedersen, managing partner at BankInvest New Energy Solutions said: "Nujira's commercial and technical progress since our last investment in September 2008 is extremely impressive, and we are delighted to extend our relationship with them through a further investment. In the past year, Nujira has extended and strengthened its relationships with major OEMs and has executed well on its technical strategy. This new round will enable them to fully exploit the existing market opportunities that they have developed, as well as enter a major new market."
Patrick Sheehan from the Environmental Technologies Fund added, "ETF believes in supporting successful businesses that make a positive contribution to the environment by bringing highly efficient technologies to market, and is delighted to add Nujira to its growing portfolio. We have tracked Nujira's progress over the last 5 years and seen it develop a strong market position and productive relationships with major OEM customers. We see a business with an innovative and proven technology with huge potential alongside a clear, well managed commercial strategy that is developing a market leadership position and is well positioned for long-term commercial success."
The worldwide Cellular and Broadcast infrastructure consumes billions of dollars of electricity each year, generating hundreds of thousands of tonnes of CO2 emissions as a result. The majority of this energy is wasted by inefficient RF Power Amplifiers in the transmission stage, which dissipate it as heat. Nujira's Coolteq modulators are claimed to cut this wasted energy by more than 50%, leading to significant economic and environmental benefits.
Nujira is engaged with thirteen cellular base station manufacturers, one of which, Sumitomo Electrical Industries of Japan, has publicly announced products based on Coolteq modules, with other manufacturers set to follow during 2009. Two global broadcast transmission equipment manufacturers have also commenced joint development programs with Nujira.
In April, Nujira announced that one of the global top five handset manufacturers had contracted with Nujira with others working to integrate the technology into their products. Nujira has identified military communications as a further attractive target market, as a number of governments have identified reducing the weight of equipment carried in the field by its troops as a strategic objective. Nujira is working with several major manufacturers and leading Western governments in programs to apply its power saving technology to military communications systems.