It is to my great fortune that Richardsons’ intimate involvement with the Oxfordshire technology innovation community requires me to visit the Harwell Campus on a regular basis. Driving on to the site, on the right-hand side I see an impressive new building with the name “Element 6” emblazoned on the front. A quick reference to my O-Level chemistry reminds me that this must have something to do with Carbon – and Google soon adds the information that “Element Six is the world’s leading supplier of synthetic diamonds for cutting, grinding, drilling, mining, polishing, optics, semi-conductors and sensors.”
So far, so prosaic. But breaking news is that there is a novel, and perhaps more romantic, purpose behind the company. It is embarking, for the first time ever, on the creation of artificial diamonds for jewellery. The diamond giant De Beers, the owner of Element 6 and no stranger to the jewellery world, is behind the initiative, and has made something of a U-turn in its attitude to synthetic diamonds.
How can these synthetic diamonds be told apart from naturally-occurring ones? Again, Oxfordshire’s technology community has come to the rescue, and Richardsons’ client Opsydia, a spin-out from the university of Oxford, has developed technology which uses lasers to add an internal, microscopic inscription into each of the new artificial diamonds. More detail about Opsydia’s technology can be found here.
Richardsons have been involved in supporting technology start-ups and other innovative companies for over 20 years. We provide a number of specialist services, including expertise in claiming R&D Tax Credits, ensuring angel investors get all the benefits of the very generous EIS and SEIS tax incentives available to them, and supporting grant claims from the various bodies, such as Innovate UK, which is part of UKRI. These complement the day-to-day support we provide to ensure our client companies are fully compliant with tax and other financial regulation, and in possession of the sound, up-to-date financial information which is vital to any ambitious, growing enterprise.
Simon Husband
June 2018