Acting as lead investor, the SSEF has invested £250,000 in St Andrews Fuel Cells Limited, with the balance of the funds coming from existing investors NESTA Investments and Imprimatur Capital, and new investors, the Low Carbon Seed Fund and Scottish Enterprise Scottish Seed Fund.  In addition to the money raised at this round, St Andrews Fuel Cells Limited has secured significant grant funding.

St Andrews Fuel Cells Limited was spun out from the University of St Andrews in 2005 having been created to exploit an innovative new solid oxide fuel cell design, called ‘SOFCRoll’.  The business is focused on making SOFCRoll a commercially viable technology for low kilowatt, portable fuel cell applications and combined heat and power systems.

Mark Hogarth, Investment Director of Sigma, said,

“We are delighted to be investing in St Andrews Fuel Cells Limited alongside NESTA Investments, Imprimatur Capital, the Low Carbon Seed Fund and the Scottish Enterprise Scottish Seed Fund.  The company has the opportunity to deliver a low cost solution for low kilowatt portable fuel cell applications and combined heat and power systems.

Clean energy and energy efficiency are a key focus for Sigma and the SSEF was Sigma’s first fund specifically dedicated to investment in these areas. In June 2007 we launched a second larger fund, the Sigma Sustainable Energy Fund II, which has had a first and second closing raising £45m of funds so far from investors including Scottish and Southern Energy plc, Bank of Scotland Corporate, Sir Tom Hunter’s West Coast Capital, Elsina Limited (a vehicle advised by Vincent Tchenguiz’s Consensus Business Group) and Sigma Technology Investments Limited. This second fund recently completed its first investment in a marine energy company, called Aquamarine Power Limited, which is developing both tidal and wave energy conversion technologies.”