Company Operations

Verditek PLC (VDTK) is an international clean technology company that develops, manufactures and sells certified lightweight solar panels. The company’s shares are listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) and the company is currently valued at £10.9 million as of 28^th May 2021.

Through its three technology focused subsidiaries, the company is focused on commercialising its solar panel business. With manufacturing based in Lainate Italy, Verditek has developed renewable power solutions for its customers that drive solar energy into applications previously unachievable. For example, the solar panels replace diesel fuel in areas such as perishable goods transport, off-grid telecommunication towers, electric vehicle charging stations, residential and holiday home power solutions and solar roofing for light-weight industrial roofing.

In addition to the current solar panels in production, Verditek has partnered with a market leader in graphene technology, Paragraf, and have created the worlds' first Graphene Integrated Photo Voltaic cell. The two firms are working together to engineer the technology for commercialisation.

Product

VDTK’s product is a rectangular panel with up to a maximum of 72 cells per panel. Like traditional solar panels, VDTK’s product traps solar energy through the use of photovoltaic cells made up of many layers of materials, including the essential semi-conductor layer – this last being what converts the sun’s energy to electricity. 

Benefits

VDTK’s product shines by being robust, flexible, lightweight and cost-effective:

• Lightweight. Weighing just over 2Kg/m2 , VDTK’s product is lighter than a conventional panel by a factor of six, or indeed more – as conventional panels can weigh as much as 40 kilos.
• Robust and flexible. The product is both robust and flexible, as a result of both polymer and filament technology which is embedded in the manufacturing process.
• Competitively priced. Given the significant advantages above, the selling price for the company’s key product is currently around the €1.3 per Watt mark.

Verditek recently announced that, by using the latest components available, the first generation product has gradually been enhanced to increase the power output from 260 watts per panel to 288 watts and then to 300 watts. This is for a standard sized panel that comprises 60 photovoltaic cells. After several months of research, the company is now embarking on the production of a more technically advanced panel that is expected to produce 350 watts per panel;

Commercial Progress

Recent years have seen the company in the development phase, but since a change in management with the appointment of new CEO Rob Richards on May 7th 2020, Verditek has started to make the most of the opportunities available in a growing market.  

In October 2020 Verditek raised a total of £3.5 million via an equity raise, with the funds mainly being used to provide working capital, to fund the cash lag between purchase of raw materials and sales receipts as production ramps up, and to strengthen the balance sheet.

Market Growth

Renewables already account for a significant share of world energy generation. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA, “Renewables Information”, 2020 Edition), renewables accounted for 13.5% of world energy supplies in 2018 – and as much as 25.2% of world electricity generation, after coal and ahead of natural gas.

Fundraise

Verditek is now looking to raise up to £500,000 via the issue of 500,000 Loan Notes to investors on the Crowd for Angels platform.

Security is by way of a floating charge on the assets of the company. The Loan-to-Value (LTV) has been calculated at 13.93% based on Total Assets of £3,588,776 (updated 30/06/2021) as declared in the Audited Accounts as of 31st December 2020, of which cash was £1,711,761. The Audited Accounts are available in the Documents section.

Crowd for Angels has underwritten the first £225,000 by investing £225,000 on similar terms offered to investors and a director of Verditek has invested £25,000. Subsequent investment over £250,000 from investors will be used to prepay the bonds issued to Crowd for Angels and the Verditek director. This will ensure that the company will receive the £500,000 before expenses it is seeking once £250,000 is raised on the platform.

Verditek will use the proceeds of the bond issue principally to provide additional working capital.