Amantys secures strategic project funding from EEDA

EEDA financing supports growth of new power-engineering skills-base in Cambridge

- 10 Oct 2011

Cambridge, England, 10th October, 2011 – Amantys Limited (Amantys), an energy efficiency power electronics company, today announced the successful award of an EEDA (East of England Development Agency) Grant for Research and Development, supported with funding from the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund), bringing Government backing to the newest innovation to emerge from the Cambridge phenomenon.

Amantys is developing commercial products for a wide range of medium and high voltage applications across all sectors of the energy industry. The company was formed in 2010 on the back of ground-breaking academic research and Cambridge business acumen by a team of former ARM executives. The Amantys team spotted the opportunity to leverage fundamental research into a fresh approach to power switching electronics to address a growing market need.

Amantys is building on the skills and expertise of its ARM and Cambridge University heritage, but the company’s focus differs from the typical skills profile of companies in the region. So in addition to recruiting the digital electronics talent, for which Cambridge is well known, the company is seeking power electronics engineers and analogue designers  - bringing a new set of skills to Cambridge.

This EEDA grant will allow Amantys to build its team to accelerate key aspects of its switching technology to deliver a high efficiency power module. The grant underlines the confidence demonstrated in July this year, when the company announced a successful Series A investment round including Fidelity International’s Moonray Investors and ARM Holdings Plc. (ARM), and this has been further endorsed by the company being shortlisted in the category of Start-up of the Year 2011 by Electronics Weekly for its annual Elektra Awards which recognises the best companies and technologies in the electronics industry.

The EEDA award will support Amantys on its project development, delivering a next generation power electronics product for power control applications as diverse as motor drives, traction control, renewable inverters, electric and hybrid vehicles, UPS, transformers and HVDC infrastructure.

Annabel Grant, Business Finance Manager at EEDA commented: “EEDA has supported many early stage high-tech companies in Cambridge, but this is the first to target the power industry. As well as employing some excellent skills in the digital and analogue electronics domain traditionally found in the region, Amantys will be extending the talent pool in the area with new positions in power electronics.”

Bryn Parry, Amantys CEO added: “Amantys is the newest example of a high tech start-up in Cambridge, combining the best of academic research with the business and product acumen of experienced executives from ARM. This government endorsement helps us tackle the critical challenges of efficiency and reliability faced by the energy industry. We’re going through a really exciting phase of our development so now we’re expanding the engineering and commercial teams to get to market quickly.”