SSE et al. back Aquamarine with £7m

SSE injected £3m into the business, as did ABB Technology Ventures, while Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Government's enterprise agency, invested £1m via the Scottish Investment Bank. The new funding will allow Aquamarine to continue developing its Oyster technology to produce energy from the sea.

The three shareholders have also agreed to provide a further £18m of financial support for Aquamarine over the next two years, with a view to taking the company to the commercialisation stage in 2014. Despite having raised almost €30m since 2005, the firm is also seeking additional investors to take part in future rounds.

The company's proven marine technology and clear strategy for product development gave the investors the confidence to inject further capital, while the management team's achievement of a number of milestones was also encouraging.

Scotland has a target to generate the equivalent of 100% of electricity demand from renewables by 2020, and marine energy is expected to make an important contribution to this. Research by the Carbon Trust, meanwhile, predicts that the marine energy sector could bring up to £76bn to the UK economy by 2050, and the nation's best marine energy sites could produce electricity at costs comparable with nuclear and onshore wind by 2025.

The investment comes weeks after Barclays announced it had provided the business with a £3.4m loan to part-finance the completion of its 2.4MW Oyster device.

Previously, in 2007, SSE led a £6.3m round in the company. In November 2010, ABB went on to lead an €11m round, to which SSE also contributed.

Company
Edinburgh-based Aquamarine Power was founded in 2005 as a spinout from Queen's University, Belfast, which began by researching flap-type wave power devices to reduce the cost of energy. The R&D team's research has since led to the development of the Oyster wave energy device. The company employs nearly 50 people.

People
Derrick Allan, head of ventures, led the deal for SSE. Gary Steel, executive committee member of the ABB Group, represented ABB and has a seat on the company's board. Lena Wilson, CEO, worked on behalf of Scottish Enterprise. Martin McAdam is the CEO of Aquamarine Power.

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