UK-founded graphene-based electronics technology company Paragraf has announced the close of its £12.8m Series A round led by Parkwalk.

The round also included investment from IQ Capital Partners, Amadeus Capital Partners and Cambridge Enterprise, the commercialisation arm of the University of Cambridge, as well as several angel investors.

The funding will see Paragraf’s first graphene-based electronics products reach the market, transitioning the company into a commercial, revenue-generating entity.

Graphene is a wonder material with multiple properties including being the most conductive material in the world, incredibly strong but flexible, capable of withstanding very high electrical powers and it has great thermal integrity.

The material, for example, can potentially replace silicon in computer chips, providing a performance speed increase of up to 1,000 times, while reducing the energy used by up to 50 percent.

Until now, manufacturers have struggled to harness the benefits of graphene. Paragraf is the first company to deliver IP-protected graphene technology using standard, mass production scale manufacturing approaches, enabling step-change performance enhancements to today’s electronic devices.

The company’s first sensor products have already demonstrated order of magnitude operational improvements over today’s incumbents.

Achieving large-scale, graphene-based production technology will enable next generation electronics, including vastly increased computing speeds, significantly improved medical diagnostics and higher efficiency renewable energy generation as well as currently unachievable products such as instant charging batteries and very low power, flexible electronics.

Paragraf has completed a highly successful seed phase, delivering a manufacturing facility, graphene layer production and first device prototypes significantly ahead of plan.

Focus now switches to delivering products with strategic volume device production partners, and commercialisation of the first device – a super-high sensitivity magnetic field detector that operates over temperature, field and power ranges that no other device can currently achieve.

Dr Simon Thomas, CEO and Co-founder of Paragraf, said: “This funding marks the start of the next phase in Paragraf’s growth. I am extremely proud of the young team at Paragraf who have collectively delivered the early strategy milestones with great skill.

"This next phase will allow Paragraf to make these truly game-changing technologies a reality. Paragraf is continually seeking like-minded collaborative development, production and commercial partners to accelerate the delivery of the many exciting electronics technology opportunities graphene has to offer.”

Alastair Kilgour from Parkwalk said: “Parkwalk has been impressed by the strong progress the management and company have made since the seed round and is delighted to lead this funding round.

"We believe that Paragraf is well-equipped to deliver the unique benefits of graphene to their customers and licensees, which in turn will enable transformative products.”