Ten years of support leads to service specialisation
Scottish Enterprise account management supports LUX Assure.
Scottish Enterprise (SE) has helped transform a Scottish firm from a general technology development company in the life sciences arena to a specialist organisation servicing the oil and gas industry.
Edinburgh-based LUX Assure has been account managed by SE since 2003. It has benefited from the business development support programme as well as the SMART Explorer initiative; and received assistance through innovation support and R&D funding, as well as help to create greater market awareness of the company and its services.
It has grown from a company developing technologies for a range of industries into a company delivering award-winning chemical monitoring technologies for both offshore and onshore use.
Its next step is to concentrate on service provision - giving companies access to technologies that inhibit corrosion, which costs the oil and gas industry millions of dollars a year; and which detect and monitor specific chemicals used in oil and gas production, allowing companies to optimise their use.
This latest step has been funded by a £3.25 million investment from the Scottish Investment Bank (SIB), the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise, alongside independent exploration and production company ConocoPhillips; Statoil Technology Invest AS, the corporate venture side of Norwegian energy company Statoil; and Archangel, Scotland’s largest provider of business angel funding.
“We’ve been supporting LUX Assure for ten years, and we’re pleased to be continuing that support with this latest deal,” said Kerry Sharp, Head of SIB.
“Since 2003 we’ve provided funding of more than £660,000 through the Co-investment Fund; and this latest deal gives around a further £500,000 from the Scottish Venture Fund. That’s more than £1.4 million from Scottish Enterprise alone.
“This latest deal brought together a strong team and it was great to be a part of it. I look forward to working with Archangel, Statoil and ConocoPhillips to continue supporting this innovative, ambitious and hard-working Scottish company as it explores and develops its new business direction.”
FURTHER MEDIA ENQUIRIES ABOUT LUX ASSURE SHOULD BE DIRECTED TO:
Contact Nicki Sturzaker, Natasha Lobley or Jeremy Bone
The BIG Partnership
0131 557 5252 or firstname.surname@bigpartnership.co.uk
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Investment Bank
Scottish Enterprise is Scotland's main economic development agency and aims to deliver a significant, lasting effect on the Scottish economy by identifying and exploiting the best opportunities for economic growth. The Scottish Investment Bank is a division of Scottish Enterprise operating Scotland-wide in partnership with Highlands and Islands Enterprise. It manages a suite of funds including the Scottish Seed Fund; the Scottish Co-investment Fund; the Scottish Venture Fund; the Scottish Plastics Loan Fund and the Renewable Energy Investment Fund. SIB is also the cornerstone investor in the privately-managed Scottish Loan Fund. These support Scotland’s SME funding market to ensure businesses with growth and export potential have adequate access to capital. SIB also provides a team of financial readiness specialists to help companies prepare for new investment and more easily access finance from the private sector.
About LUX Assure
LUX Assure aims to become the world leader in providing new technology and services to monitor difficult-to-detect chemicals used by the oil industry and specialises in developing products that can be deployed onsite and which are rapid and simple to use, even by non-specialist staff. http://www.luxassure.com
LUX was established in 2001, and before becoming focused on the oil and gas industry it successfully developed technologies for a range of industries. This includes co-inventing the dental technology at the heart of recently established Calcivis.
CoMic™: A technology to help ensure optimal corrosion inhibitor usage. CoMic™ is an entirely novel concept in chemical monitoring and is based on detecting corrosion inhibitor micelles in oilfield fluids onsite. The presence of micelles is used as an indicator for the efficacy of the corrosion inhibitor dose.
OMMICA™: A simple, accurate and sensitive testing kit for analysing the concentration of the thermodynamic hydrate inhibitors methanol and monoethylene glycol (MEG), in water, crude oil and condensate.
About Archangel Informal Investment
Archangel Informal Investment is Scotland's leading Business Angel Syndicate. Formed in 1992 and based in Edinburgh, the syndicate comprises around 100 investor members and is investing about £10m per year in early stage Scottish companies, including leverage from partners; the largest being the Scottish Enterprise Co-Investment Fund.
The syndicate and its small central executive team have wide experience in diverse business sectors and disciplines to help and support the creation and development of young companies to maximise investor return.
About ConocoPhillips
ConocoPhillips is one of the world’s largest independent Exploration and Production companies based on proved reserves and production of liquids and natural gas. As of December 31, 2012, the company had operations and activities in 30 countries, $58 billion in annual revenue, $117 billion of assets, and approximately 16,900 employees. Through its Technology Ventures group, ConocoPhillips makes equity investments in start-up companies developing innovative technologies with the potential to improve the company’s safety, sustainability, and operating performance. ConocoPhillips Technology Ventures also seeks to collaborate with its portfolio companies to validate and commercialize technologies.
About Statoil Technology Invest
Statoil is a Norwegian based global energy company with business in more than 40 countries. Through its corporate venture arm Statoil Technology Invest, Statoil makes investments in exciting start-up companies which have technology that will improve Statoil’s operations. In addition to equity funds Statoil Technology Invest offers access to technical expertise, qualification sites offshore and sales to a major oil company. Statoil Technology Invest is presently building a presence in the UK.