Manufacturer cheers £750,000 boost
● Cash injection from organisations such as Par Equity, and Equity Gap
Edinburgh-based compressor manufacturer Vert Technologies has secured nearly £750,000 in new funding, saying the move is a “highly gratifying vote of confidence from investors”.
The firm has received the sum from a clutch of existing investors including Par Equity, Equity Gap, Aero Den and the Scottish Investment Bank, the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise – and says the cash injection comes on the back of “outstanding progress”.
Innovation from Vert Technologies is to hit the market once the Covid-19 crisis subsides. Its new Vert A150 compressor, alongside its A100 model, incorporates a design it says “has been hailed as one of the biggest advances in the compressed air industry in the last 40 years”.
The business added that the product range will be further extended towards the end of the year with the launch of a sub-25-kilogram compressor model aimed primarily at the fibre optic installation market.
Chief executive Phil Harris said regarding the funding boost: “This is a highly gratifying vote of confidence from investorswithintimateknowledge of the progress we have been making over the past 18 months in bringing innovation to the global compressor market.”
He added: “With the additional funding we will be ramping up both sales and production, putting ourselves in a position to bring our exciting new products and technology to a wider audience from which we anticipate substantial take-up.”
Development projects are also in the pipeline to extend the reach of the high-pressure Vert technology into the refrigeration market, an application for which the business said it is “ideally placed”.
A new, quiet vacuum concept product, powered by the Vert Conical Rotary Compressor (CRC) technology, which is capable of continuous operation, has also now been developed. The current Vert A150 compressor is an “impressively quiet, compact unit [that] fits neatly under a bench or in a van, so can be sited close to the point of use, whilst the low levels of vibration ensure minimal impact on surrounding equipment”.
Vert also said the compressor can run continuously and does not require the “expensive” installation of other rival compressors.
Harris said: “We continue to accelerate sales of our compressor units. We are also excited about the potential to exploit the benefits of our technology across a variety of markets, which is why we are particularly pleased with the potential of our CRC technology for the high-pressure refrigeration market as well as in vacuum.”
Vert was founded in 2013, and has 15 staff at its Technology Manufacturing and Design Centre on the southern edge of Edinburgh. It last year secured a grant from the UK Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
The manufacturer said last month that it was offering its products on free, short-term loan to small Scottish businesses struggling during the Covid-19-triggered downturn.
The organisation also last year launched the second stage of a “cutting-edge” project with the European Space Agency – aiming to allow rockets to travel faster and further – following a successful year of initial testing.
“This is a highly gratifying vote of confidence from investors with intimate knowledge of the progress we have been making.”
CEO PHIL HARRIS