First Products Shipped to Labcon North America
Melbourne, June 21, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Bluechiip Limited (
ASX:BCT) (Bluechiip or Company), a leader in the development of sample tracking technology for harsh environments, is pleased to provide this company update.
Highlights
- First products shipped to Labcon North America under agreement signed April 2017.
- Labcon commence tooling for manufacture
- Significant acceleration of annual revenue growth expected in FY18.
- Capital raise $2.53m, 1:3 non-renounceable rights issue and shortfall placement to support growth and working capital.
- Notice of allowance to patent for 'Temperature Sensing and Heating Device'
Partner Progress - First Products Shipped to Labcon and Tooling for Manufacture
Labcon North America signed a pivotal agreement with Bluechiip in April 2017. In early June Bluechiip partially shipped the first order under this agreement for Bluechiip Buttons, Bluechiip Cryoboxes and Bluechiip Readers all for use in Labcon's customer validation site. Further sites will be established across Europe and US in the months ahead.
Labcon has also begun tooling for manufacture of Bluechiip-enabled cryovials to service the 2ml-vial market. Labcon has independently valued this market for BCT's products at $US40m per year.
Jim Happ, President Labcon North America said, "We are delighted with the progress and see a large market opportunity for Bluechiip-enabled Labcon cryogenic equipment. We have customers already interested in the technology. The Bluechiip technology enables us to differentiate our range of cyrogenic vials and we have already commenced tooling for manufacture."
Genea Biomedx continues to develop and incorporate Bluechiip technology into its Assisted Reproductive Technologies product pipeline distributed globally. Genea Biomedx expects its Bluechiip-enabled Gidget LN2 product to enter the market during FY18.
Tomas Stojanov, CEO at Genea, said: "The Bluechiip technology enables us to continue to expand our roadmap of new products with exciting new technologies, broadening our portfolio in the global assisted reproductive technologies marketplace. We are particularly excited to soon be able to offer the technology to customers and incorporate Bluechiip's technology into our own IVF facility in Sydney, to improve productivity, product tracking accuracy and safety."
Planet Innovation, BRW magazine's Australia's most innovative company for the past three years and 5% shareholder in Bluechiip, continues to engage downstream partners to execute Bluechiip-enabled opportunities which will incorporate the company's technology.
Bluechiip's order book continues to build with the company having now sold 13 developer kits with an expanding pipeline of more than 30 potential partners.
Accelerating Revenue
Revenue is expected to accelerate significantly in FY18 based on contractual commitments already in place. This growth continues to be driven by: sale and delivery of products to the company's Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) partners, including Labcon North America, Genea Biomedx and Planet Innovation; licence fees; development services and developer kit sales to pipeline partners.
Rights Issue and Capital Raising
On 1 June Bluechiip announced that it would raise up to $2.53m via a 1:3 non-renounceable rights issue to fund working capital and growth.
The offer is progressing well. "Feedback and response has been positive with strong interest" Bluechiip Managing Director Andrew McLellan said. "Directors have taken up, or are expected to take up, their full entitlement, and interest in any shortfall placement continues to build. The opportunity exists for shareholders to apply for additional shares on top of their entitlement."
Non-shareholders, who are sophisticated investors, are also invited to apply for shares as part of the current capital raising.
In addition to the rights issue, we have received an application from a significant investor for a private placement of $1.1m at the same price as the rights issue, and conditional on the rights issue being fully allocated. This would enable Bluechiip to be fully funded.
Ramsgate Advisors is assisting Bluechiip with its investor relations.
Expanding Patent Portfolio
Bluechiip's unique, highly-differentiated technology portfolio continues to be reinforced with a notice of allowance for the company's 'Temperature Sensing and Heating Device' patent application. In the coming months this will be granted as a published patent in the United States of America, and will take the company's granted patent portfolio to 25 patents across seven families. The company is progressing with a provisional application for an 'Over- Temperature Sensing' device, the result of co-funded research and development.
About Bluechiip Limited
Bluechiip Ltd (ASX:BCT) understands that every sample - stem cells, blood, eggs, sperm and other biospecimens - is critical, so our objective is to manage each one with optimal quality in the most efficient way. Bluechiip's advanced management solution is the only one that provides sample temperature with ID in cryogenic environments to. Most importantly, this delivers confidence in every sample.
Bluechiip's unique patented technology is a MEMS-based wireless tracking solution that contains no electronics. It represents a generational change from current tracking methods such as labels (hand-written and pre-printed), barcodes (linear and 2D), and Radio Frequency Identification. Bluechiip tags are either embedded or manufactured into storage products such as vials or bags. Each product can be easily identified, and critical information such as sample temperature, is detected by readers and stored in the Bluechiip software. In addition to functioning in extreme temperatures, the Bluechiip(R) Advanced Sample management solution can survive autoclaving, gamma irradiation sterilization, humidification, centrifuging, cryogenic storage and frosting.
Bluechiip's technology has applications in healthcare, including in cryogenic storage facilities (biobanks and biorepositories), pathology, clinical trials and forensics. Other key markets include cold-chain logistics/supply chain, security/defence, industrial/manufacturing and aerospace/aviation.
Bluechiip: Delivering confidence in every sample.
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