LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Cadmium-free quantum dots and nanomaterials manufacturer Nanoco Group has signed a quantum dot material supply agreement with STMicroelectronics International, it announced on Thursday.
The London-listed firm said the agreement covered both development work and commercial supply of nanomaterials for use in various infra-red sensing applications over an initial five-year period.

It said it extended the collaboration that was in place while both companies were working for their mutual, unnamed "significant" US customer.

Orders for development work on material for a new application and small-scale volumes of an existing material had already been received.

The board said the first phase of the development work, which started in April, was scheduled to last until December.

It said the new purchase orders were material in size for Nanoco, underpinning its extended operational cash runway to the second quarter of 2021, as it indicated in its interim results at the end of April.

Any further purchase orders would improve that position, the company said.

The agreement also committed STMicroelectronics to certain minimum volumes in the event that future commercial production orders were required.

"We are very pleased with this latest development in our collaboration with ST," said chief executive officer Dr Michael Edelman.

"Both companies have been working actively to generate value from our previous two years of investments in developing new materials, devices, and mass production capabilities for use in infra-red sensing.

"The agreement now enables us find new routes to market in the short term, and potential new applications in the medium term."

Dr Edelman said STMicroelectronics' "deep knowledge" of the sensing markets and multiple potential applications and customers made them an "ideal strategic customer" for Nanoco.

"Nanoco's materials deliver a very significant performance enhancement to ST's silicon based infra-red sensors.

"A medium term roadmap to commercial production volumes, enabled by our newly-developed materials, is taking shape.

"This will allow us to leverage the value from our recent investment in our new Runcorn electronics materials production facility."

At 1253 BST, shares in Nanoco Group were up 34.55% at 14.8p.

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