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20 December 2024

Tekcapital plc

 ("Tekcapital" or the "Company")

Portfolio Company Update: Guident Ltd

Awarded New European Patent No. 4097550

Tekcapital Plc (AIM: TEK) the UK intellectual property investment group focused on creating valuable products that can improve people's lives, is pleased to announce that its portfolio company Guident Ltd ("Guident") has received European Patent Grant No. 4097550, entitled Artificial Intelligence Method and Apparatus for Remote Monitoring and Control of Autonomous Vehicles.

The patent is directed to an autonomous vehicle remote monitoring and control centre (RMCC) employing distributed sensor fusion and artificial intelligence techniques that is configured to receive sensor data across multiple independently governed autonomous vehicles, including sensor data from vehicles not operating under RMCC control, determine incident risk levels, and take control of one or more of the autonomous vehicles operating at an unsafe incident risk level, implement safety measures, and return control when the level is safe.

Guident has built one of the first commercial-grade remote monitoring and control centres for autonomous vehicles in Florida, with additional facilities underway in Michigan, and Europe, and has developed what we believe is a comprehensive intellectual property portfolio as illustrated below:

The adoption of autonomous vehicles (AVs) across the United States is accelerating, and Guident welcomes the accompanying regulatory developments that put the safety of passengers and the public at the forefront of autonomous vehicle fleet rollouts.

Market Traction and Strategic Outlook

·    The Total Addressable Market for automotive active safety systems (which includes driver monitoring) is projected to exceed $25 billion by 2030.^[1]

·    Autonomous vehicles are expected to transition from embryonic to the beginning of mainstream adoption across global markets. Waymo LLC is now providing 150,000 paid AV trips a week^[2] and Tesla, Inc. is planning to launch its robotaxi service in 2026.^[3]

·    Safety remains pivotal to the adoption of AVs for all stakeholders, including consumers, government bodies, manufacturers, technology developers, and AV fleet operators.

Harald Braun, Executive Chairman of Guident, commented:

"We are very excited about the recent patent and commercial progress of Guident. We believe the timing for Guident's potential IPO next year is excellent and our experience with remote monitoring and control coupled with our proprietary intellectual property provides a first mover advantage."

Guident's RMCC in Boca Raton Florida, USA, Photo courtesy of Guident:

Guident will be exhibiting its RMCC teleoperations solution for autonomous vehicles at CES Las Vegas, NV from January 7-10^th, 2025 at booth #8255. CES® is one of the leading consumer electronics trade shows in the world connecting innovators, decision-makers, media, influencers, visionaries, and potential customers across the entire tech ecosystem.

About Guident

Guident commercializes patented technology to enable safer autonomous vehicles and devices by providing industry-leading AV remote monitoring, control, assistance, and passenger support services. To learn more, please visit https://guident.com/.

About Tekcapital plc

Tekcapital creates value from investing in new, university-developed discoveries that can enhance people's lives. Tekcapital is quoted on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange (AIM: symbol TEK) and is headquartered in the UK. For more information, please visit www.tekcapital.com.

Tekcapital owns 100% of the share capital of Guident Ltd. Guident Ltd. owns approximately 91% of Guident Corp., its US subsidiary, and 100% of Revive Energy Solutions Ltd, its UK subsidiary.

LEI: 213800GOJTOV19FIFZ85

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Tekcapital's mission is to create valuable products from university intellectual property that can improve people's lives.  Therefore, our ability to compete in the market may be negatively affected if our portfolio companies lose some or all of their intellectual property rights, if patent rights that they rely on are invalidated, or if they are unable to obtain other intellectual property rights. Our success will depend on the ability of our portfolio companies to obtain and protect patents on their technology and products, to protect their trade secrets, and for them to maintain their rights to licensed intellectual property or technologies. Their patent applications or those of our licensors may not result in the issue of patents in the United States or other countries. Their patents or those of their licensors may not afford meaningful protection for our technology and products. Others may challenge their patents or those of their licensors by proceedings such as interference, oppositions and re-examinations or in litigation seeking to establish the invalidity of their patents. In the event that one or more of their patents are challenged, a court may invalidate the patent(s) or determine that the patent(s) is not enforceable, which could harm their competitive position and ours. If one or more of our portfolio company patents are invalidated or found to be unenforceable, or if the scope of the claims in any of these patents is limited by a court decision, our portfolio companies could lose certain market exclusivity afforded by patents owned or in-licensed by us and potential competitors could more easily bring products to the market that directly compete with our own. The uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of their patent applications, and the cost of enforcement or defence of their issued patents could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.

To protect or enforce their patent rights, our portfolio companies may initiate interference proceedings, oppositions, re-examinations or litigation against others. However, these activities are expensive, take significant time and divert management's attention from other business concerns. They may not prevail in these activities. If they are not successful in these activities, the prevailing party may obtain superior rights to our claimed inventions and technology, which could adversely affect their ability of our portfolio companies to successfully market and commercialise their products and services. Claims by other companies may infringe the intellectual property rights on which our portfolio companies rely, and if such rights are deemed to be invalid it could adversely affect our portfolio companies and ourselves as investors in these companies.

From time to time, companies may assert patent, copyright and other intellectual proprietary rights against our portfolio company's products or technologies. These claims can result in the future in lawsuits being brought against our portfolio companies or their holding company. They and we may not prevail in any lawsuits alleging patent infringement given the complex technical issues and inherent uncertainties in intellectual property litigation. If any of our portfolio company products, technologies or activities, from which our portfolio companies derive or expect to derive a substantial portion of their revenues and were found to infringe on another company's intellectual property rights, they could be subject to an injunction that would force the removal of such product from the market or they could be required to redesign such product, which could be costly. They could also be ordered to pay damages or other compensation, including punitive damages and attorneys' fees to such other company. A negative outcome in any such litigation could also severely disrupt the sales of their marketed products to their customers, which in turn could harm their relationships with their customers, their market share and their product revenues. Even if they are ultimately successful in defending any intellectual property litigation, such litigation is expensive and time consuming to address, will divert our management's attention from their business and may harm their reputation and ours.

Several of our portfolio companies may be subject to complex and costly regulation and if government regulations are interpreted or enforced in a manner adverse to them, they may be subject to enforcement actions, penalties, exclusion, and other material limitations on their operations that could have a negative impact on their financial performance. All of the above-listed risks can have a material, negative affect on our net asset value, revenue, performance and the success of our business and the portfolio companies we have invested in.

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