TenasiTech trifecta: industry, investment and government support

TenasiTech, a materials science start-up company from UniQuest, based on University of Queensland research, has secured $1.4 million in grants and equity capital from the Queensland Government and Uniseed.

The funding announcement came just prior to TenasiTech’s presentation at the TechConnect Innovation Showcase in California, the world’s largest multidisciplinary, multisector innovation and technology business event.

UniQuest’s Managing Director, David Henderson, said the additional funding would help the start-up with co-development programs, targeting high-value applications for its novel polymer technology.

“TenasiTech was launched in 2008 with seed funding from Uniseed, and while government grant funding from COMET and Commercialisation Australia has also advanced the company’s product development, these high-profile milestones will see TenasiTech accelerate its efforts to offer a range of industries a competitive edge,” Henderson said.

“The grant, investment and opportunity to present at a high-calibre international event reflect a growing confidence in university research as a valuable generator of commercially viable innovation.”

The Hon Ros Bates, the Queensland Government’s Minister for Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts, announced the $925,000 grant at the 2012 International BIO Conference in Boston, US. TenasiTech’s industry partners in the program are three non-competing multinational companies.

“The Queensland Government grant supports our goal to be the first choice for high-performance composite polymers,” said TenasiTech’s MD and Uniseed Investment Manager, Richard Marshall.

“Our technology is now providing new materials options for customers in engineering, sporting and water treatment applications. We are working with elastomers, foams and multiple polymer families and can customise our additive technology to suit our partners’ specific requirements.”

TenasiTech is able to produce material at industrial scale that is competitively priced and fits within the existing polymer supply chain and its additive technology - Adaptive Polyol - offers a new way of incorporating its proprietary nanotechnology additive into a prepolymer ingredient.

TenasiTech is now working in multiple polymer families including acrylics and silicones and polyurethane elastomers and foams. Importantly, the company is building a pipeline of proprietary product lines of its Adaptive Polyol to suit the specific performance and processing requirements of high-value applications.

The nanotechnology originates from 10 years of research by Professor Darren Martin at the School of Chemical Engineering and the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, both at the University of Queensland. UniQuest licensed the technology licensed to TenasiTech in 2008. The company owns and controls a number of patent applications which are in progress in several of the major markets.