SME of the Month October - Oxford Advanced Surface Ltd.

Main activities of the company 
Development and commercialisation of advanced materials based on proprietary surface coating technology.

Total number of people employed
7

Company start date
September 2006

History of the Company

OAS was founded Dr Mark Moloney and Dr Jon-Paul Griffiths  to exploit intellectual property developed by the founders at the Chemistry department at Oxford University. The founders realised early that the technology had commercial potential and were embarked in a number of collaborations with industry prior to spin-out.  The initial research was partially funded by a University Challenge Seed Fund grant  and the company  was funded by the IP Group Plc and the management team.

OAS specialises in surface modification to deliver changes in the surface properties of normally inert materials such as natural and synthetic polymers, inorganics such as glass and diamond, and metals via leveraging coating technology (ONTOä) developed by the founders. The company develops coatings that exploit highly reactive chemistry, controlling the reactivity so that they can be conveniently and safely applied to modify normally very inert surfaces in forms ranging from large scale sheet, films and fabrics all the way to nano particles.  

ONTOä coatings are only a few molecules thick yet they produce dramatic permanent changes to the surface properties of a material.    The platform technology is versatile and can be used to deliver a broad range of surface properties as well as deliver these with high precision (micron scale) and in any combination as required by the end application.    Functionalities that can be delivered include but are not limited to tailored wetting properties, selective binding, adhesion, biocompatibility, biocidal activity, coloration, etc.  This allows OAS to deliver unprecedented opportunities for markets such as electronics, biomedical, consumer goods, water filtration, aerospace and automotive, etc.    

From its laboratory at Oxford University's Begbroke Science Park, the company designs and develops novel chemical reagents as well as implementation processes and end user applications. In the first year of operation, OAS has had contact with over sixty (60) companies around the world and as a result,  it is engaged or in discussion with companies in a diverse group of markets: Electronics/Electromechanical, Imaging, Specialty/laminated films, Consumer Goods, Biomedical/Life Sciences , etc.   The company is currently engaged in a number of  joint development programmes with companies in the US, Europe and the UK and will be soon expanding its lab space to prepare for the next phase of growth.

The company is  an R&D based business and the business model is typically to embark on fee paying work to implement the technology into a customer application and then establish royalty paying licensing arrangements to exploit the technology in the application.  The company  intends to contract out or license the manufacture of the materials.

What the future holds
Our immediate aspirations are to become profitable and self funding and we are on track to do that.  Long term, the company aspires to become  a world class leading edge "advanced surface solutions"  company across a range of  highly valuable markets.

The company has the opportunity to accelerate growth and is likely going to seek further funding