Investing in public graphene stocks - Page 2

The UK semiconductor industry has received a significant boost as Innovate UK, a part of UK Research and Innovation, has announced an investment of £11.5 million spread across 16 innovative projects. This funding is aimed at scaling up semiconductor manufacturing, improving supply chain resilience, and fostering new collaborations between industry and academia.

Among the award winners is Paragraf, a company with a vision to establish the first 2D materials device foundry in the world, focusing on graphene technology. Paragraf, in collaboration with the universities of Glasgow and Birmingham, aims to scale up its graphene growth technology from 2” wafers to 6” wafers, making strides in manufacturing and device reliability testing that have never been attempted before.

Innovate UK has announced a £3.2 million (around USD$4.2 million) investment in seven projects to further advance the decarbonization of the domestic concrete industry. This funding forms part of the agency's broader effort to foster sustainable practices and reduce carbon emissions within the construction sector.

Among the recipients is Cemex UK Operations, that intends to use the investment to further the development of CoMLaG, a combination of micronized limestone and graphene, which aims to reduce the carbon footprint of concrete.

Versarien has announced the completed sale of its wholly-owned subsidiary AAC Cyroma to Harper Bennett for £0.55 million (around USD$734,000).

Versarien said the sale aligned with its strategy to focus on its core graphene technology and divest its more mature businesses. It said the consideration would be paid in 16 equal quarterly instalments of £34,375, starting three months after completion. To safeguard the transaction, Versarien would retain a charge over AAC Cyroma's assets and those of Harper Bennett until all payments were completed.

Directa Plus PLC said that it expects to underperform against market expectations as it posted a larger interim loss, citing shorter term headwinds and an extended timeline for the award of a substantial tender for its subsidiary Setcar, which deals with the decontamination of industrial plants and environmental services.

The Company said pretax loss widened to €2.5 million in the first half of 2024, from €1.9 million a year ago. Revenue fell 26% to €3.4 million from €4.6 million. Employee benefit expenses increased to €2.3 million from €2.2 million. Costs for raw materials and consumables decreased to €1.5 million from €2.2 million.

NanoXplore has reported its financial results for the year ended June 30, 2024. Record total revenues of CAD$38,125,566 (around USD$28,168,000) were reported, compared to CAD$33,318,964 (around USD$24,616,000) last year, representing a 14% increase; Loss of CAD$2,421,110 (USD$1,789,000) compared to CAD$2,003,549 (USD$1,480,000) last year.

Additional numbers included adjusted EBITDA of CAD$2,488,304 compared to CAD$526,140 last year; Adjusted EBITDA of CAD$3,329,793 compared to CAD$1,130,962 last year for the Advanced Materials, Plastics and Composite Products segment; Adjusted EBITDA loss of CAD$841,489 compared to CAD$604,822 last year for the Battery Cells segment (VoltaXplore initiative); Total liquidity of CAD$36,504,880 as at June 30, 2024, including cash and cash equivalents of CAD$26,504,880; Total long-term debt of CAD$6,346,503 as at June 30, 2024, down by CAD$1,529,385 compared to June 30, 2023.

Premier Graphene, HGI Industrial Technologies and Defense Atomics have announced a strategic partnership aimed at advancing the production and application of graphene in ballistic protection technologies. This collaboration brings together expertise from the three parties to meet the growing demand for high-performance ballistic solutions.

The partnership focuses on the feasibility studies and testing of hardware developed by Defense Atomics, that integrates advanced graphene solutions for enhanced ballistic protection, ensuring compliance with the security protocols required for classified government contracts.

Novusterra is reportedly preparing for its initial public offering. The private company filed a securities registration last month and said it plans to go public within 90 days. It hopes to be approved to trade on the OTCQB Venture Market, often used by companies that are still developing.

This seems to be an ambitious move for Novusterra, a company that is still in the testing-and-evaluation phase of its products. The startup was founded in 2020 by Andrew Weeraratne, who served as CEO until he left the company in 2022. 

Graphene Manufacturing Group (GMG) has provided a business update on its recently commissioned modular graphene production plant at Richlands, Australia. The graphene production plant has been operating and producing graphene since its commissioning date in December, 2023.

The performance of the production unit, according to GMG's CEO and managing director, Craig Nicol, has "exceeded the Company's expectations in both graphene production rate and graphene quality. The company continues to perform minor optimizations with this new production plant which have both increased production yield and quality of the graphene".

Cerebral Energy has announced it has been selected by AFWERX (the innovation arm of the U.S Air Force, powered by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)) for a Phase II STTR follow-on contract in the amount of $1.6 million to support further development of a new lithium-free secondary battery using recycled aluminum and graphene derived from recycled US waste streams. 

The technology was developed by Dr. Lynden Archer - Dean of the School of Engineering at Cornell University and licensed by Cerebral. The novel aluminum battery design is over 3X more efficient than lithium, and said to be much safer (no fire risk), 10X faster charging and has no supply chain challenges since the materials are derived from US waste streams. Known as "AGILE," the batteries will first support Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) medical modernization teams to address their pressing tactical power issues.

First Graphene has secured funding for a collaborative research project with Swansea University to determine the market potential of the Company’s Kainos Technology.

The grant is valued at approximately AU$192,152 (over USD$130,000) and was secured through Analysis for Innovators (A4i) Round 12, Stage 2 funding, delivered by Innovate UK. The funding is specifically meant for businesses utilizing expertise from leading research facilities across the UK to overcome
productivity or technical barriers of new technologies towards market readiness.