The boss of promising robotics company Wootzano has appealed for urgent funds in a race against time to save his business.
Scientist Atif Syed founded the Tyneside-based maker of automated food packing systems in 2018 and has gone on to quickly grow it, winning work around the world with multimillion-pound orders from as far afield as the US and Japan. Now the firm - which has developed its own sensor technology that is ideal for the delicate handling of fresh food - is facing winding up following a petition from Government-owned agency, Innovate UK.
The entrepreneur says Wootzano has been his life's work and has more than £570m of contracts on its books, with scores of jobs on the line. After weeks of efforts behind the scenes, including through the Supreme Court, Mr Syed has gone public about the major threat to Wootzano's future which has seen its bank accounts frozen, meaning it is unable to instruct lawyers to challenge the petition on its behalf.
A crowdfunding campaign has been launched with hopes £10,000 can be raised to hire legal experts in Scotland, where the company is still registered. Staff at Wootzano's Cobalt Business Park base are still working on orders which are now delayed amid the situation.
Mr Syed - who is one of the Government's Export Champions and has represented the country on overseas trade missions - told BusinessLive the episode "feels like a dream" and that he never imagined having to appeal for help in such a way.
He explained: "I wear a hat for Wootzano and for the British economy as part of the Department for Business and Trade. I go out to other countries to tell people to invest in the UK. Apart from anything else it is embarrassing.
"Our partners and customers will see this now. It's not just horrible for Wootzano but for the whole country. It says: "if you invest in the UK, the Government can just come and do something like this'. What message are we giving to the rest of the world?
"And this is happening to a company that is not insolvent. It's a fully functioning company - the only British company that is shipping robots to Japan, to Australia, to Malaysia and the US.
"That's why I've decided to go public: to make sure that we're fighting for the right cause. And Wootzano has people and customers relying on us. It would be a catastrophic failure if this is allowed to happen."
Wootzano took the £838,000 Innovate UK Innovation Loan in 2022 for a specific vision-based subsystem of its Avarai robots - a piece of technology it hoped could provide another source of revenue for the business. The loan was offered on a seven to 10 year term with below market interest rate.
When the subsystem was not commercialised within an allotted time frame, Mr Syed says there was an initial agreement to repay some of the loan and convert the rest to equity in the firm - which at the time was valued at about £50m. But Mr Syed says a winding up petition was filed ,leaving the business stunned.
Wootzano now has until November 28 to file an appeal against the winding up petition, with Mr Syed warning via his public appeal that "this is not how innovation should die". He added: "I have spent years building this with an extraordinary team. I am not giving up, but right now, the company is legally unable to act without help."
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