Teesside firm Applied Graphene Materials (AGM) has narrowed losses and says it is looking forward to sales growth after securing £5.5m in funding.
The firm, which is at the forefront of harnessing the possibilities of graphene – an ultra-lightweight, thin and flexible allotrope that has been dubbed a ‘wonder material’ due to the many uses it can be put to – says it has enough cash to fund its operations well into 2023.
AGM’s half-year results to January 31 show revenue advanced 17% to £42,000 while loss before tax was cut to £1.8m from £2.3m in 2020. Operating expenses were reduced by £500,000 to £1.7m.
The company, which works out of the Wilton Centre science park, saw a number of new product launches in the car care sector and secured repeat business from JBL for aerosol-based primers.
Its commercial relationship with Blocksil is starting to build momentum with orders from RTE, Network Rail and the construction industry. There was also approval for use of a new graphene-enhanced primer with Blocksil.
Growth in total pipeline engagements rose to 135 from 92 in 2020, including 10 completed developments, and resulting revenue potential increased to £3.7m from £2.9m.
Further distributors have also been added to enhance AGM’s regional presence in Turkey and South Korea.
AGM said another “major milestone” during the period had been the approval by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) of an increased powder volume to supply large volumes of graphene for graphene consortium members.
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This had addressed a major barrier to large-scale adoption of graphene technology within the EU, allowing deployment at scale.
Commenting on the half-year results, Adrian Potts, chief executive of AGM, said: “We have made good progress in the period both in our technology development and with specific customers, primarily in the coatings sector. Similarly, our expanded distributor base is generating a growing number of new customer engagements.
“Our route to significant revenue is through providing our high-quality graphene nanoplatelets dispersed in a format ready to be incorporated into customer product formulations.
“We continue to work successfully with our customers on graphene integration through to product testing and product launches and we are now starting to see our customer base launch graphene-enhanced products on a larger scale.
“All of this progress is key to driving AGM’s sales growth, and it is particularly pleasing to see our customers in the coatings sector starting to use graphene-enhanced products in a range of large-scale, real-life applications, resulting in a developing pattern of repeat orders for our graphene products.
“Having completed our recent fundraise, the board considers AGM to be in good shape to develop our revenue prospects in the coming months.”
AGM has grown from an academic idea at Durham University to become a world leader in the development and application of graphene nanoplatelet dispersions for customers in the coatings, composites and functional materials sectors.
Admitted to AIM in November 2013 and since August last year listed on the OTCQB in the United States, AGM has developed a significant sales distribution network covering Europe, North America and Asia.