LONDON, UK: Nanoco Group plc (LSE: NANO), a world leader in the development and manufacture of cadmium-free quantum dots and other specific nanomaterials emanating from its technology platform, has signed a major new Joint Development Agreement (JDA) with its important Asian Chemical customer.

The two-year programme has now commenced and creates a longer term and deeper collaboration between the two companies, who have been working together since June 2021.

The JDA follows on from the successful delivery of all technical milestones in the six short development projects previously undertaken for the Customer which were focused on delivering a novel second generation nanomaterial for use in infra-red sensing. With proof of concept now achieved, the key goal of the JDA is to optimise the material for the performance required by a number of global electronics applications. Once this is successfully delivered, the subsequent stage will involve scale up to industrial production levels during 2026 and 2027.

The JDA helps to underpin the Board’s expectations for non-license fee income in FY24, which are in line with FY23 and is also expected to deliver additional sales of test materials during FY24 and FY25.

Brian Tenner, Nanoco’s CEO, commented: “The JDA marks a significant milestone during our collaboration with an important customer and in delivering world leading levels of performance for our new second generation sensing material.

“The extended commitment highlights our Customer’s confidence and belief in Nanoco and the applicability of quantum dot technology to the significant global infra-red sensing markets in which it operates. Our customer is a very significant player in electronics supply chains and extends Nanoco’s reach to their many customers.

“We are encouraged that both of our current key customers continue to show strong momentum in their engagements with Nanoco and continue to feed our pipeline of new material development to ensure future commercial production income streams. We look forward to developing these relationships further as progress continues.”