Textile materials technology innovator HeiQ (LSE: HEIQ) has become a publicly listed company on the London Stock Exchange Main Market at 08:00 a.m. GMT today. The admission follows an oversubscribed placing and subscription, raising £60 million (before expenses).
HeiQ is a global pioneer in the $24 billion textile chemicals market, directly serving the $10 billion antimicrobial textile market with its recent Swiss Technology Award-winning HeiQ Viroblock technology. Born on a hike as a spin-off of ETH Zurich founded in 2005, HeiQ has grown rapidly into a cash generative company with more than 100 employees around the world. It is the first ETH spin-off to be listed outside of Switzerland and the only company that has ever won the Swiss Technology Awards more than once.
The company has created some of the most effective, durable and high-performance textile technologies in the market today which cool, warm, dry, repel, purify and stop viruses. So far, HeiQ has developed over 200 technologies in partnership with over 300 major brands, including Burberry, GAP, New Balance, Patagonia, Speedo, The North Face and Zara.
Led by an experienced management team, HeiQ rapidly researches new solutions for partners, quickly delivers scaled up manufacturing from its sites across the world and helps partners market the product to end consumers – aiming for lab to consumer in a matter of months.
HeiQ’s latest innovation – HeiQ Viroblock – is an award-winning antimicrobial technology which helps in the fight against enveloped viruses, including SARS-Cov-2 (the virus causing COVID-19). This technology is already being used by more than 150 major brands such as Burberry.
The company’s aim is to deliver growth by driving increased sales of HeiQ’s core products and by entering additional lucrative markets through disruptive innovations:
• Increasing market penetration of core innovations
• Building on the significant momentum achieved by HeiQ Viroblock
• Developing new disruptive innovations
HeiQ Co-Founder & CEO Carlo Centonze said: “Today’s listing is a major milestone for HeiQ. We have spent 15 years building HeiQ to become one of the leading textile materials innovators in the world.
“The fundraise will enable HeiQ to capture more market share through increased sales of our core products to major brands. These have grown 17% in the first half of the year. The antimicrobial market, which has become a mainstream request, also presents a compelling growth opportunity going forward.”