RCS - Frontier IP Group - New portfolio company Deakin Bio-Hybrid Materials

Frontier IPAnnouncement

23/10/2023 07:15

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RNS Number : 8822Q  Frontier IP Group plc  23 October 2023

Reach - a non-regulatory announcement

AIM: FIPP

23 October 2023

 

Frontier IP Group Plc

("Frontier IP" or the "Group")

 

 

Portfolio news - new portfolio company Deakin Bio-Hybrid Materials

 

Frontier IP, a specialist in commercialising intellectual property, today
announces it has taken a 32.8 per cent equity stake in Deakin Bio-Hybrid
Materials Limited, ("DeakinBio" or the "Company").

 

DeakinBio has developed a technology, termed BioSintering®, to produce
advanced bio-based materials from organic waste such as chickpea broth or
algae, along with widely available inorganic powders such as crushed
limestone. The bio-based materials have compositions similar to natural
materials such as seashells and pearl. Initial applications are as sustainable
alternatives to ceramic tiles, with the potential to reduce the carbon
footprint of tile manufacture by up to 90 per cent.

 

Traditional ceramic tiles have a high carbon footprint because they need to be
fired at high temperatures to harden (sinter) and glaze the products. Making
one square metre of tiles can emit up to 16 kg of carbon dioxide. DeakinBio's
BioSintering and BioGlazing processes remove the need for firing and glazing,
and the ambition is to produce tiles with similar strength and functionality
to their conventional equivalents but with a much lower carbon footprint -
currently calculated at 0.92 kg of CO(2)e emissions per square metre according
to an independent Life Cycle Assessment. It is intended to make the tiles on
industry-standard production lines.

 

BioSintering® and BioGlazing have been used to date to make materials based
on the principles of combining biopolymers, water, and calcium carbonate
particles to produce a biocomposite material after undergoing low-temperature
processing. The inorganic material is currently powdered limestone, although
DeakinBio is exploring the use of crushed seashells, a waste product from the
seafood industry, as a source of calcium carbonate in the future.

 

The Company's first material, Fabalith®, combines calcium carbonate with a
binder made from chickpea broth, a waste product from the food industry.

 

DeakinBio was founded in June 2021 by BioSintering® and BioGlazing inventor
Dr Aled Roberts who is based at the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology,
University of Manchester where he is a Research Fellow. Dr Roberts holds a PhD
in Materials Chemistry from the University of Liverpool. He was lead
researcher on the project to create StarCrete® - a new concrete-like material
made from extra-terrestrial dust, potato starch and a pinch of salt, which
could one day be used to build infrastructure in space.

 

The Company is also exploring the feasibility of new materials made from
bio-manufacturing waste streams, such as microbial waste, after winning a
£92,364 grant from Innovate UK.

 

DeakinBio won the £50,000 first prize in the University of Manchester's Eli
Harari Graphene Enterprise Awards for 2022.

 

With its focus on developing new materials, partly made from organic waste
streams, DeakinBio fits into Frontier IP's Materials, and Food and Agritech
clusters. It is expected that there will be opportunities for the Company to
share expertise with other portfolio companies, including: Alusid, which has
developed complementary technology for sustainable building materials using
recycled industrial waste, and; Nandi Proteins, which has extensive
connections in the food industry and with potential sources of chickpea waste.
Alusid's first mass-produced wall tile range, Principle, has recently been
launched by Topps Tiles, the UK's no. 1 tile specialist, through its retail
outlets.

 

More information is available on the Company's website:
https://www.deakinbio.com/ (https://www.deakinbio.com/)

 

 

DeakinBio Founder Dr Aled Roberts said: "We are delighted to be partnering
with Frontier IP to help us accelerate the commercialisation of our exciting
technologies. With their proven track record of success and expertise in
technology transfer, we are confident that this collaboration will help us
bring our cutting-edge solutions to the market and create real-world impact."

 

Neil Crabb, Frontier IP Chief Executive Officer, said: "We are excited about
the potential of DeakinBio and its novel biocomposites, not just in the tile
industry, but in other sectors too. The company fits very well into our
Materials, and Food and Agritech clusters and is already sharing expertise and
knowledge with other companies in our portfolio. We are looking forward to
working with Aled and the DeakinBio team and supporting them to future
success. "

 

 

 

 

ENQUIRIES

 

 

 Frontier IP Group Plc                                                  T: 020 3968 7815
 Neil Crabb, Chief Executive                                            neil@frontierip.co.uk

 Andrew Johnson, Communications & Investor Relations                    M: 07464 546 025

 Company website: www.frontierip.co.uk (http://www.frontierip.co.uk/)
 Allenby Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser)                            T: 0203 328 5656

 Nick Athanas / George Payne

ABOUT FRONTIER IP

Frontier IP unites science and commerce by identifying strong intellectual
property and accelerating its development through a range of commercialisation
services. A critical part of the Group's work is involving relevant industry
partners at an early stage of development to ensure technology meets real
world demands and needs.

The Group looks to build and grow a portfolio of equity stakes and licence
income by taking an active involvement in spin-out companies, including
support for fund raising and collaboration with relevant industry partners at
an early stage of development.

 

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