An investment fund owned by the United Arab Emirates is in the process of injecting almost £8.8 million ($10.7 million) into UK firm Cranfield Aerospace Solutions (CAeS) in exchange for equity in the advanced powertrain developer.
Documents filed at the UK’s Companies House on 28 September disclose that CAeS has entered into an agreement with Tawazun Strategic Development Fund covering the provision of funding.
Tawazun will provide £8.79 million to CAeS through convertible loan notes, which will later be exchanged for shares in the business.
CAeS declines to reveal the timeline for the transaction to conclude or the shareholding Tawazun will ultimately have in the company.
“In short, it’s the vehicle they have used to inject more funds into the business in acknowledgement of their support and confidence, which should also help bring in new investors,” says the company.
Announcing its planned merger with Britten-Norman in April – a process currently on hold – CAeS had signalled that existing backers, including Tawazun, would invest up to £10 million into the merged business; HydrogenOne Capital Growth would alone provide £5 million.
In August 2022, Tawazun was one of two investors to pledge a combined £3.9 million as part of a Series A funding round.
The convertible loan notes are secured against CAeS’s intellectual property (IP), among other assets.
Detailed in the Companies House documents, the IP includes patents obtained by CAeS for an “integrated hydrogen-electric powertrain” and its sub-systems, including those relating to thermal management, electrical distribution and control.
CAeS has been developing a fuel cell-based powertrain as a retrofit for Britten-Norman’s BN-2 Islander.
