Estonian industrial technology company MuRay has raised EUR 7 million in its first major investment round, Invest in Estonia reports, citing Äripäev. MuRayTech, as the company behind the technology is known, is developing imaging technology based on artificial muon radiation, and was founded by co-founder Andi Hektor and co-founder and scientist Kristjan Põder.
The report says MuRayTech brings together laser, plasma and muon technologies into one compact source of artificial-muon radiation. The company argues this form of radiation gets through dense materials better than ordinary X-rays do, which it says would let users look inside large or heavy objects, such as metal parts used in aerospace, energy and automotive manufacturing, or 3D-printed rocket engines and turbines, without taking them apart. MuRayTech is also looking at medical uses, as a possible way to image patients wherever a safer method would help, the report adds.
MuRayTech has grown out of the Estonian deeptech company GScan, which uses naturally occurring muons for the inspection of critical infrastructure and cargo containers
, Invest in Estonia writes.
With the new money in hand, MuRayTech can now push on with turning its research into a working industrial product. Its operations span Tallinn, Hamburg and Cambridge, and it is working with the University of Cambridge to bring medical-technology know-how into the project. Põder also leads a research group on laser-plasma accelerators at the DESY research centre in Hamburg, which keeps the firm close to potential industrial users in Europe.
Invest in Estonia adds that MuRayTech's approach swaps the large, costly equipment traditionally used for particle acceleration for a much smaller plasma chamber, though the company still has engineering work ahead before the system is practical, as it competes internationally to commercialise compact artificial-muon sources.
Source: Invest in Estonia, . The text above is our own summary; the words in quotation marks are the source's.
What this means for an Estonian entrepreneur
An Estonian deeptech company completing its first major investment round should have the round's shareholder agreement, share issue and register filings prepared alongside the technical and international partner negotiations, so the new capital is tied to clear ownership before work with foreign research partners and customers expands further.
We draft the shareholder agreement, share issue documents and register filings that close out an Estonian company's funding round. Investment round documentation for an Estonian company