Neil Woodford has invested more cash in this tech startup
Neil Woodford has increased his stake in Drayson Technologies, a UK startup specialising in wireless technology.
The top fund manager's Patient Capital Trust is among investors to plough £8m into Drayson in a new round of funding, bringing the tech firms investment to date to £26m.
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The series B round was led by Woodford's fund and fellow existing investor Lansdowne Partners. Other new investors have not been disclosed, while staff at Drayson were also part of the round.
Drayson Technologies was founded by the entrepreneur and former science minister Lord Drayson and was spun out of Imperial College's innovation lab. He said:
“Since the launch of our Freevolt technology last year we have seen tremendous interest in its application to power the growing numbers of connected devices being deployed as the third wave of internet connectivity gathers momentum. This investment will enable us to capitalise on this opportunity and position the company to be at the forefront of powering the Internet of Things.”
Freevolt works by harvesting energy from radio waves and can be used to power devices such as smartphones and has been used for creating a small device called Cleanspace that monitors air pollution.
Read more: This device aims to power our lives using radiowaves
The new funding will go towards applying Freevolt technology, which it also licenses, in areas such as the Internet of Things, digital health and smart cities.
Woodford's fund is focused on investing in early stage startups and also includes challenger bank Atom.