IP Group (LSE:IPO), the London-listed investor in science and technology companies, has led a £4m pre-series A funding round into Matter Machine, an AI-driven materials discovery company spun out of the University of Liverpool.
The oversubscribed round included fellow investors Northern Gritstone, the University of Liverpool Enterprise Fund, Norrsken Evolve, LYVA Labs and the Northern Universities Venture Fund managed by Parkwalk, IP Group's EIS fund management business.
Matter Machine is developing a platform that combines materials characterisation expertise with AI prediction to accelerate the discovery and optimisation of inorganic crystalline materials. It aims to cut the time and cost of innovation in sectors including energy, catalysts and advanced manufacturing.
It is highlighted as the largest funding secured by a newly formed University of Liverpool spin-out.
Proceeds will be used to expand Matter Machine's technical and commercial team, develop its discovery platform further, and engage commercial partners across multiple sectors. Meanwhile, Dr Gordon Sanghera CBE, co-founder and former chief executive of Oxford Nanopore Technologies, has joined Matter Machine to lead its commercialisation strategy.
"Matter Machine brings together exceptional scientific expertise, unique technology capabilities and a highly scalable commercial opportunity," Sanghera commented.
Greg Smith, chief executive of IP Group, said the University of Liverpool's AI-powered discovery work "could dramatically shorten the time required to develop new materials".
Matter Machine is located at the University of Liverpool's Materials Innovation Factory and contributes to the AI Materials Hub for Innovation programme, which is working to position the Liverpool City Region as a centre for AI-enabled materials research.
The new investment is the first made under a multi-year partnership between the University of Liverpool and Northern Gritstone, the investment and venture-building company chaired by Lord Jim O'Neill.