Imprimatur Capital, an international investor in technology backed businesses, headquartered in the United Kingdom and with a presence in Singapore, is making a significant investment in home grown technology startup D-SIMLAB Technologies Pte Ltd (“D-SIMLAB”) and taking substantial shareholding alongside Exploit Technologies Pte Ltd (“Exploit Technologies”), the marketing and commercialisation arm of the Singapore Agency for Science, Technology and Research (“A* STAR”). D-SIMLAB, a spin-off from A*STAR, provides high-performance, simulation-based software solutions and services for manufacturing systems and logistics network enhancement and operations management in asset-intensive industries, enabling clients to achieve sustainable savings. D-SIMLAB was incorporated in October 2006 following the successful completion of projects with companies in the aerospace and semiconductor industries.
The newly-formed company has licensed core technology from A*STAR’s Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (“SIMTech”) to tap the commercial value of the team’s extensive research track record. Exploit Technologies is confident of the commercial potential in D-SIMLAB and has been incubating the start-up for 15 months. Exploit Technologies worked closely with the company and actively supported them in business development and fund raising. This gave D-SIMLAB a head start to further develop both the technology and its target markets. D-SIMLAB’s current flagship product D-SIMSPAIR is targeted at the aerospace sector. It enables an ongoing business paradigm shift and multimillion dollar, maintainable savings for MRO companies, component service providers and airlines.
One of the first commercial applications has been secured with OEMServices, a joint venture of four major Airbus suppliers, for the optimisation of spare part support services for airlines operating Airbus A380 aircraft such as Singapore Airlines and Emirates. Efforts to launch the technology into other domains such as semiconductor manufacturing and seaport container terminal operations are under way.
The investment in D-SIMLAB represents another important milestone for Imprimatur Capital’s local operations in Singapore and its unique international business model. It further validates Imprimatur’s long standing confidence in both the high quality IP (Intellectual Property) being generated here in Singapore and its international commercialisation potential. By using a disciplined market focus and proactively identifying opportunities within targeted investment themes, Imprimatur is confident D-SIMLAB can build upon its strong technology platform and early successes into a world class business.
Together with Exploit Technologies, Imprimatur Capital will be represented on the Board of D-SIMLAB and as with all of its investments it will support and work closely with the management team to build D-SIMLAB’s business and create meaningful uplift in value. “At Imprimatur Capital, we actively identify world class technology with the potential for profitable growth in targeted large international markets. Imprimatur’s team carry out extensive proprietary due diligence to ensure we can turn good science into good business. We are confident that our participation in D-SIMLAB will help to add significant value to its operations, growth and valuation. Simulation software is paving the way in manufacturing and aerospace industries. But the importance of modeling software doesn’t end there. This is a trend that could impact many more large scale industries.
Our investment is in the correct direction,” explained Greg Barnes, Executive Director of Imprimatur Capital in Singapore. Mr Boon Swan Foo, Executive Chairman of Exploit Technologies Pte Ltd, the marketing and commercialisation arm of A*STAR, said, “We are very excited that the technologies from A*STAR have received such strong interest internationally. Exploit Technologies saw a gem in D-SIMLAB when we incubated the start-up at the end of 2006. It is encouraging that Imprimatur Capital shares Exploit Technologies’ vision and confidence in D-SIMLAB.
We believe that this new partnership will help realise the full commercial potential of D-SIMLAB and contribute to the growth of the high-end software industry in Singapore. Given that simulation software can be deployed in many industries, the likely economic impact is very substantial.” D-SIMLAB is headed by Dr Peter Lendermann who also was the leader of the SIMTech research team that developed the technology. He has been engaged in the simulation community since the early 1990’s when he worked at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.
In 1996 he joined a German consulting firm where he was responsible for acquiring and executing business process re-engineering projects with numerous process manufacturing, aviation and automotive clients in Western Europe, Russia, Canada and China before moving to Singapore in 2000. Said Dr Lendermann, “The creation of D-SIMLAB was possible because of an unprecedented joint effort between the Founders and Exploit Technologies, together with our launch customer OEMServices who has been supporting us right from the very beginning. With an international early stage investment firm as a shareholder, we will now be able to extend our business on a global scale.”