London, 10 December 2019: Foresight Group (“Foresight”) and Williams Advanced Engineering (“Williams”) are pleased to announce a £1.6 million investment into Oxford University spin-out Mixergy Limited (“Mixergy” or “The Company”), which is set to revolutionise the global hot water tank market and reduce the cost of energy for consumers.
Mixergy was founded in 2014 by Peter Armstrong, CEO, and Ren Kang, Head of R&D, following the completion of their PhD research at Oxford University where the duo originally developed the idea during their doctoral research. The team has since grown to 17 staff and built strong relationships with British Gas, a major installer of tanks.
The Company brings innovation to an industry which has historically seen little investment or development; existing solutions mean that a conventional domestic hot water tank can consume as much energy as a small car in a year. It has developed an internet connected, smart hot water tank which looks to address current inefficiencies whilst also providing additional value-add services for users.
The technology inherent in Mixergy’s product range will give consumers greater control and oversight of their hot water systems, and a tank that heats up five times faster than a traditional tank. It also has energy efficiency advantages due to its unique ability to heat only the amount of water required, saving customers using electricity up to £150 a year on their energy bills as a result of heat loss reduction and better utilisation of time of use tariffs whilst saving gas customers up to 15% on gas associated with domestic hot water production. If rolled out across the UK’s fleet of hot water tanks, Mixergy’s technology would save almost 11GWh of energy per day, equivalent to the typical output of a 1GW power station.
The Company is poised to benefit from Foresight’s experience in facilitating the growth of early stage companies and Williams’ expertise in product development and manufacturing, in fields such as electronics and computational fluid dynamics.
The growth capital investment will be used to roll out its products across the UK and to bolster its international growth strategy, as well growing the team based at its Oxford head office.
Commenting on the investment, Chris Wiles, Senior Investment Manager at Foresight, said:
“We are very impressed with Mixergy’s vision of developing a better hot water tank which saves customers energy whilst also facilitating the uptake of intermittent renewable generation. We look forward to supporting Mixergy in the coming years with the roll out of its products across the UK, Europe and North America.”
Peter Armstrong, CEO of Mixergy, added: “Mixergy is thrilled to have Foresight and Williams on board as we expand our supply chain into new markets. The team has been a real pleasure to work with throughout the run-up to this investment and has already delivered valuable inputs to our strategy. We look forward to delivering on our ‘Internet of Tanks’ vision together over the coming years.”
Matthew Burke, Head of Technology Ventures at Williams Advanced Engineering, added: “We are delighted to support Mixergy’s growth plans with this investment. Energy efficient performance is at the heart of what we do at Williams Advanced Engineering and Mixergy’s smart hot water tank technology is a great example; heating up faster while using less energy, improving efficiency and reducing cost to the customer; all whilst benefiting the environment.”
For further information contact:
Ben Thompson, Foresight Group bthompson@foresightgroup.eu/020 3667 8155
NOTES FOR EDITORS
Foresight and Williams announced the unique collaboration represented by the Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund in November 2016. It combines the Williams Advanced Engineering team’s expertise with Foresight’s successful investment track record.
The Fund enables investors to qualify for relief under the UK Government’s Enterprise Investment Scheme (“EIS”) for investment into early stage UK SMEs with strong intellectual property in their own specialist fields.
The Fund plans to make investments of up to £3 million into at least ten qualifying UK SMEs per investor, supporting the next generation of engineering technology success stories in the UK.
http://www.foresightwilliams.co.uk/
About Foresight Group LLP (“Foresight”):
Foresight is a leading independent infrastructure and private equity investment manager which has been managing investment funds on behalf of institutions and retail clients for more than 35 years.
Foresight has £4 billion of Assets Under Management across a number of funds, including Listed Vehicles, Limited Partnerships, Enterprise Investment Schemes (EISs), Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) and Inheritance Tax Solutions using Business Property Relief (BPR).
Foresight’s Private Equity team, comprising 26 investment professionals, pursues four discrete but complementary investment styles: Venture, Impact, Growth and Replacement Capital through its growing regional office network.
Foresight was named ‘Fund Manager of the Year’ at the PLC Awards 2018, ‘Generalist VCT of the Year’ at the Investment Week Tax Efficiency Awards 2018/19 and was a finalist in the 2018 Unquote British Private Equity Awards as Venture and Growth Capital House of the Year. In 2017, Foresight was voted ‘Best VCT Investment Manager’ at the Growth Investor Awards, having been previously awarded ‘VCT House of the Year’ at the 2016 Unquote British Private Equity awards.
Foresight is headquartered in London with regional UK offices in Manchester, Nottingham, Milton Keynes, Leicester, Edinburgh and Guernsey and international offices in Sydney, Rome, Madrid and Seoul.
About Williams Advanced Engineering:
Williams Advanced Engineering Limited operates a technology and engineering services business and is part of the Williams Group.
In 2010, Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited began diversifying its operations, leading to the establishment of the Williams Advanced Engineering division, which has now become Williams Advanced Engineering Limited. Combining cutting edge technology and the industry’s best engineers with precision and speed to market derived from four decades of success in the ultra-competitive environment of Formula One, Williams Advanced Engineering provides world class technical innovation, engineering, testing, manufacturing and operational consultancy services to the automotive, motorsport, aerospace, defence, health and energy sectors. Working in close collaboration with its customers, Williams Advanced Engineering helps meet the sustainability challenges of the 21st century and improve performance, with its expertise in aerodynamics and thermodynamics, electrification, advanced lightweight materials, simulation and vehicle integration. The Company was honoured with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation 2018.
For more information see www.wae.com, follow on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.
