Foresight's first ever technology investment has just been made for £500k

Foresight Group LLP has announced the investment of £500k on behalf of the Foresight Williams Technology Fund into Utonomy in Southampton.

Utonomy, a gas grid solutions provider, is to receive the transaction which will be the fund’s first ever investment. This will aim to support disruptive technologies through high-performance engineering and proven investment management.

Established in 2015, Utonomy has developed an innovative technology for reducing leakage in gas distributions networks, optimising gas distribution pressures through electro-mechanical actuators controlled by cloud-based software.

The CEO of Utonomy, Adam Kingdon, said: “We are delighted to receive investment through the Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund. This will enable us to complete the product development, certification and customer trials of our innovative solution for reducing methane emissions.

“We are very pleased to get the chance to work with Williams Advanced Engineering to develop our technology further and to have support of Foresight to grow Utonomy into a leading company.”

It has been said the leakage of methane from gas distribution networks is a huge global problem with over 300bn MWh of this potent greenhouse gas lost from networks across the globe every year.

This matter is estimated to cost customers more than £5bn per annum and, more importantly, leakage of methane has a huge impact on the environment, said to release more emissions than the UK put together.

Williams Advanced Engineering is well-placed to support the design and development of the actuator technology, and with Foresight’s experience in growing businesses and expanding them globally, this will be invaluable to Utonomy in the commercialisation of its technology and expansion of the business.

Matthew Burke, head of technology ventures at WAE, commented: “Utonomy is an exciting business and [its] technology is a great fit for Williams Advanced Engineering.

“Our engineers are looking forward to working with them on the electro-mechanical actuator and control systems; we’re confident that we can help it accelerate its product design and development going forward.”

The managing director, Craig Wilson, of Williams Advanced Engineering, said: “We’re pleased to [announce this] fund [which] launched with the vision to support local emerging technologies and innovative solutions to global problems.

“Thanks to four years of successful operation, vast experience in technology development and complex engineering delivery.”

Foresight and Williams announced the unique collaboration in November last year to combine the Williams Advanced Engineering team with Foresight’s successful investment track record.

The fund enables investors to qualify for relief with Foresight’s successful investment track record. In addition, it plans to make investments of up to £2m into at least 10 qualifying UK SMEs, supporting the next generation of engineering technology success stories.

Foresight has over 30 years of experience in fundraising and investing in UK SMEs, managing more than £830m for some 22,000 shareholders in its family of Venture Capital Trusts, Enterprise Investment Schemes and Inheritance Tax Solutions.