PlasmaBound, a University College Dublin spin-out company that specialises in “lightweighting” technology, has raised €2.35m in its latest funding round.

The investment round, which was led by Act Venture Capital, and backed by the Atlantic Bridge University Fund, Enterprise Ireland (EI) and private investors, will help the company accelerate its development of controlled polymer ablation (CPA) tech.

The patented technology helps manufacturers reduce the weight of products and meet fuel efficiency and carbon emissions requirements, and has applications for vehicles, devices and structures, the company said.

“The level of real-world plasma control achieved with CPA will let industries use composites ubiquitously, cost effectively and creatively,” said John O’Sullivan, general partner at Act Venture Capital.

“It will enable a big step forward in composite material use, something I think the sector has been waiting for.’’

CEO Alan Barry said the deployment of CPA was currently limited by cost and complexity to only high-tech applications, but that the funding secured by the company was a sign of confidence that the technology has a future in mainstream mass-production.

PlasmaBound, headquartered at NovaUCD, was co-founded in 2017 by Dr James Nicholas Barry, Alan Barry and Xavier Montibert as a spin-out from the UCD College of Engineering and Architecture following the completion of Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Funding.

The company closed a €1.1m investment round in June 2020 to build its first-generation product offering and to support the company’s marketing efforts. EI and Atlantic Bridge backed that fundraising, as well.

Atlantic Bridge is a global technology investment firm with over €1.3bn under management across eight funds, investing in “deep tech” companies in Europe and the US. It supports a portfolio of more than two dozen companies and has successfully exited more than 20 investments.

Act Venture Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm that partners with founders and established teams trying to scale their growth to address large markets.

The firm, based in Clonskeagh, Dublin, has raised €500m and has backed 200 founders. Its exits include Storyful, Stockbyte and Trustev.

Reporting: The Irish Independent