AMCS secures €5.25m to double workforce

LIMERICK TECHNOLOGY firm Advanced Manufacturing Control Systems (AMCS) has secured €5.25 million in venture capital funding which will enable it to double its workforce to 100 by the end of next year.

AMCS supplies waste management and recycling technology such as identification, weighing and vehicle location components to the public and private sector. It has more than 50 corporate and local authority customers in Ireland, Britain, Europe and the US including the three largest private waste firms in the Republic – Greenstar, Veolia and Oxigen.

The funding round was led by WHEB Ventures, a British firm that specialises in clean technology investments. The €75 million Ulster Bank Diageo Venture Fund, managed by NCB Ventures in Dublin, also participated.

AMCS intends to use the funds for international expansion as well as supporting new product development. Chief executive Jimmy Martin said the firm would establish a software research and development facility in Limerick. It is also putting in place a call centre to support its customers in the US, Britain and Sweden.

AMCS provides “pay-as-you-throw” technology, which tracks how much waste households are leaving out for collection and bills them accordingly, to the bulk of private operators and local authorities in Ireland. Pay-as-you-throw is becoming the standard way internationally to reduce waste being sent to landfill.

The investment is the first by the Ulster Bank Diageo Venture Fund which was established last October with support from Enterprise Ireland. Managing partner of NCB Ventures Michael Murphy said the fund was taking a long-term investment approach, “over a five-year horizon”, and as such considers it a good time to be taking equity stakes in growing businesses.

James McNaught-Davis from WHEB Ventures and Will Prendergast from NCB Ventures will represent the respective funds on the board of AMCS.

Hogan Associates acted as advisers to AMCS on the deal while Maples and Calder advised WHEB Ventures.