In June 2005, IOTA NanoSolutions Limited was registered as a spin-out company from Unilever with a mission to exploit and develop novel proprietary nanodispersion technologies. The roots of IOTA NanoSolutions lie in a collaboration between scientists at the University of Liverpool Department of Chemistry and Unilever which began in 2002. The initial concepts were created by Prof. Andy Cooper (Liverpool) and Dr. Haifei Zhang (Liverpool) but were expanded in a joint development led by Prof. Steve Rannard and produced a valuable intellectual property portfolio.

IOTA NanoSolutions was co-founded by Prof. Steve Rannard, Dr. Alison Foster, Dr. Dave Duncalf and Prof. Andy Cooper and is currently funded by Unilever Ventures.

Since the spin-out IOTA NanoSolutions has grown in size, now with 8 full-time employees, and has built a multi-sector partner portfolio. IOTA NanoSolutions is based in two purpose-built laboratories in the MerseyBio incubator, Liverpool, and is actively seeking further product opportunities for joint development with innovative companies.

Although majority owned by Unilever, IOTA NanoSolutions Limited is operating as an independent business.

IOTA NanoSolutions Timeline