News
New capital for Danfoss IXA
22-03-2010
The new investors, who are also joining the company board, are Ebbe Knudsen, former president of DEVI Floor Heating, and Dirk Meerpohl, managing director of German company CAL GmbH. CAL GmbH owns Big Dutchman, one of the world’s leading suppliers of housing equipment and feeding systems for modern pig and poultry management, and the parent company of Skov A/S (ventilation systems for livestock houses).
Dirk Meerpohl has extensive knowledge about the global market in agricultural automation. Until the end of August 2009, Ebbe Knudsen was the president of DEVI Floor Heating, which Danfoss acquired with effect from January 2003.
“We are very glad that we managed to attract investors who will actively contribute with their knowledge, experiences and funds. With Ebbe Knudsen as the new chairman of the board and new board member Dirk Meerpohl, we will add major, international business-related experience to Danfoss IXA. We have concentrated on finding ‘wise money’ and now we have it,” says Henrik Gedde Moos, the CEO of Danfoss IXA.
The unique, patented sensor technology fits well with the global focus on energy and environment. It is extremely robust and performs exact and continuous measurement of climate parameters, such as temperature, CO2 and humidity in connection with ventilation in buildings, where Danfoss IXA targets stables in particular. Furthermore, the emission of environmentally harmful gases, the so-called NOx and SOx, is measured directly in, for example, chimneys on ships, and the sensor is far simpler to install compared with traditional emission measurement systems.
“We are very pleased that we now have secured the capital and that we will be able to concentrate on the development in the period until the launch. Personally, I am of course happy that our ideas and products are strong enough for us to raise capital in the midst of a financial crisis,” says CTO Jens Møller Jensen, who had the idea for, and was the originator of, the groundbreaking technology.
It is the well-known sensor technology, new patented measurement principles and new nano-treated surfaces which, combined, created this as yet unprecedented sensor. It can be used in particularly aggressive or strongly polluting industrial environments, where it is difficult to make existing sensors function properly.
“It is a positive thing that we managed to attract external investors. We are always pleased when a good idea, which has its origins in Danfoss, gets the chance to develop further,” says Danfoss CEO Niels B. Christiansen.