Kromek, formerly Durham Scientific Crystals was incorporated in April 2003 to commercialise technology which had been developed in the Physics Department of Durham University over a period of some 20 years. As is often the case with University spin outs the operation began in a small way using dedicated incubator space within the University and with just a core team of three people. Business angel finance was used to fund the Company and this was soon supplemented by the allocation of a DTI SMART award for the construction of the first commercial crystal growth facility.
By 2005 the Company had outgrown its incubator space and so it moved in as the first tenant to the Netpark facility, a Technology Park in Sedgefield, County Durham. Also in 2005 the Company attracted significant investment from Amphion Innovations, a London and New York venture fund, dedicated to building shareholder value in high growth technology businesses. The Company’s first contract was received shortly after that for the supply of specialist material to the European Space Agency.
Although the Company was originally set up to commercialise the production of single crystals of the CdTe family of materials, the Company’s business model evolved to move up the value chain to produce sub-assemblies and end user products in the x-ray market, based on the material platform. Expertise was available within the management team in the design of advanced x-ray imaging systems. The Company has developed significant expertise and capabilities to combine its detector technology and the x-ray imaging technology. The result is a series of products that are being launched to deal with liquid based threats in aviation security and border control. This will be followed by a family of other products aimed at both the security and industrial inspection markets.
The Company now has over 30 employees, 12 of which have PhD’s, it holds multiple contracts and has raised in excess of £9M to develop its current product range which now spans high quality single crystal material through detector assemblies to complete system designs.
