Release Date: 05th February 2003

Icona Solutions Launch

Icona Solutions Ltd. is a University of Leeds spin off company launched this week, backed by an initial £300k investment from the White Rose Technology Seedcorn Fund. Icona will market innovative software that has been developed within the Informatics Institute to visualize the impact of manufacturing variation on product quality.

The products have been enthusiastically received both by end-users and major software vendors. They will be marketed for use in conjunction with industry standard CAD systems providing greatly enhanced capabilities. Partnership with major solutions providers will enable Icona to rapidly penetrate major manufacturing accounts.

The Executive Chairman of Icona Solutions, Dr David Belford, said

"This is an exciting opportunity, unlike many University start-ups, Icona is already well advanced in commercializing its technology for which there is a real demand in the automotive sector."

Icona is contributing to the world-wide trend to improve quality and reduce time to market for new vehicles through the increased use of computer-based virtual prototypes, rather than a life sized real models. For the first time, engineers will be able to review the effects of manufacturing variation on the appearance of a vehicle using Icona software.

The Technical Director of Icona Solutions, Dr John Maxfield, said

"Visualizing the effects of manufacturing variation early in the design process will significantly reduce the number of quality problems encountered during the production of new models, leading to enormous savings in both time and money for manufacturers."

Icona will combine their industry leading software products with consultancy services and a complete customer support and training package to deliver a comprehensive offering in the field of visualizing aesthetic quality.

The £9 million White Rose Seedcorn fund, administered by Aberdeen Murray Johnson, invests in commercial opportunities arising from research at the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York. The investment in Icona Solutions is its 16th to date.

About Icona

Founded in the UK in early 2003 as a University of Leeds spin-out company, Icona Solutions grew out of pioneering work undertaken at the School of Computing, University of Leeds as part of a Government-funded (EPSRC) project called VITAL (Visualisation of the Impact of Tolerance Allocation). The four-year project involved close collaboration with the automotive industry. The project’s team leader, Dr. John Maxfield, later joined Icona Solutions as founder and technical director.

Since the original proof-of-concept work of the team at the University of Leeds, Icona Solutions has undertake research and development to significantly extend the functionality to the software, with the result being aesthetica™.
Icona Solutions has developed significant added functionality to the software, with the result being aesthetica.

The company is currently establishing technical support, training and sales operations to serve the global automotive industry.

About White Rose Technology

The WRTSF was created in 1999 with an award of £4.5 million through the DTI’s University Challenge competition (the largest award made). Member universities and Regional Development Agency Yorkshire Forward have boosted the Fund to £9 million. The Fund invests in spin-out companies from the universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York and is managed by Aberdeen Murray Johnstone Private Equity. Further information about the WRTSF can be found at www.whiteroseseedcorn.com