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CableSense secures £213K from NWDA

- Lancaster / University of Manchester start up gets second major investment boost

Wednesday 27th January 2010

Lancaster based hi-tech start-up CableSense, has announced that it has been awarded a £213K Grant for Research and Development by the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA).

The grant marks an exciting two months for CableSense, who also secured a half million pound equity investment from North West technology investment specialists, MTI Partners, through the UMIP Premier Fund (UPF), in November 2009.

The company has developed an innovative new approach to managing large scale, structured cabling systems, and the NWDA's grant is designed to accelerate the delivery of its proposition to market.

Grant for Research and Development is part of Solutions for Business, the Government's package of publicly funded business support designed to help companies start and grow, helping entrepreneurs and business owners introduce innovative products and processes, including research trials and product testing.

CableSense's solution is differentiated by being readily retro-fittable, at a low cost, to existing cabling installations. The system utilises CableSense's proprietary technology for network cable monitoring, scanning and mapping.

This substantially reduces many of the costs of maintaining and running a structured cabling network, including the cost and complexity of moves, making additions and changes, fault indetificaion and diagnosis, inventory management and capital expenditure through the identification and re-use of redundant equipment and capacity.

Geoff Butcher, the Executive Chairman of CableSense said: "The NWDA's investment is yet another important boost for CableSense, and will further accelerate the delivery its product to the market, and the realisation of its business model."

Geoff continues: "We'd obviously like to thank the NWDA for the award of the grant, but we'd also like to recognise the value of the assistance provided by UMIP in helping us navigate the grant application process, and MTI for assisting in our overall business strategy."

Mark Hughes, Executive Director of Economic Development at the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) said: "Innovative thinking is key to commercial success and global competitiveness. The NWDA is pleased to be able to offer a Grant for Research and Development to CableSense - a company that is driven by original thinking and leading-edge technologies."

As part of the response to the current economic downturn, GRAND is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) with £1.1 million, together with £1.2 million from the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA).

The CableSense grant comes hot on the heels of the announcement that the NWDA has awarded a MTI Partners/YFM partnership a £9 million fund management mandate to be invested in North West SMEs.

Manchester based MTI Partners Investment Manager Mark Rahn said: "The announcement of the grant award is excellent news for CableSense, and further highlights the synergy in approach that exists between the NWDA and MTI. Both have recognised the potential commercial value of CableSense's technology, and both have sought to invest accordingly."

CableSense forms part of the growing cluster of high-tech companies across the North-West region supported by MTI and the UPF fund.

-Ends-

For more information on this press release or anything related please contact David Innes-Edwards on 07939 137 098, or email david@frontierpr.co.uk

Notes to Editors:
The NWDA is playing a crucial role in response to the current economic downturn, with a number of actions being taken to meet the needs of businesses during these financially challenging times. To keep updated on the range of support being offered by the NWDA go to - www.nwda.co.uk/supportingbusiness

For more information on business support visit www.businesslink.gov.uk/northwest

For more information on Finance for Business please visit www.nwdabusinessfinance.co.uk

About MTI
MTI is a leader in the field of technology venture capital, and one of the most successful and experienced technology fund managers in the UK. MTI has a sustained performance record across more than two decades and five venture funds. MTI's latest fund, The UMIP Premier Fund, is Europe's largest institutional fund to have a single university focus and works in partnership with the University of Manchester. (www.mtifirms.com)

About CableSense
CableSense was formed in 2009 following a collaboration with DKR Electrical Ltd, the University of Lancaster and the University of Manchester in the UK. CableSense hardware and software technology is retro-fitable and enables the mapping and monitoring of the cabling infrastructure of most IT networks. CableSense is based in InfoLab 21, on campus at the University of Lancaster and has benefited from substantial input from Prof Anthony Peyton, now with the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Manchester, who remains with the company as Research Director.

About UMIP
The University of Manchester Intellectual Property Limited (UMIP) is the managing agent of The University of Manchester for intellectual property commercialisation. UMIP's role is to enhance the reputation of the University's intellectual property development through successful spin-out and licensing business activities.
UMIP will manage early stage proof-of-principle awards, which are a novel feature of the Fund, thereby kick-starting the new ideas coming out of the University. The University currently has up to ten spinout companies looking for funding. (www.umip.com)

About The UMIP Premier Fund ("UPF")
UPF invests in businesses emerging from The University of Manchester's "5-star" rated academic departments. The University's technology transfer company, UMIP, undertakes the stringent business selection of the investments and the fund is managed by the UK's leading technology investment manager, MTI Partners.
The Fund will primarily make late-seed stage investments, in a total of 15 - 20 companies, initially in the £250k - £750k range, with both the intention and capacity to provide follow-on investment up to £3m.