Today, an interview with Serstech CEO Stefan Sandor was published in the print and online magazine CBNW. The first issue of the year included a focus section on Swedish high-tech security companies and featured major defense contractor Saab alongside Serstech.
The article covers both Serstech as a company and our solutions. Read the article here, pages 28-31: CBNW Magazine, issue 1, 2021
Handheld Raman is an excellent tool for police, border control and first responders to identify unknown threats quickly in the field. Narcotics, explosives and other dangerous chemicals can pose serious threats to the operators and being able to quickly identify them reduces the risk for and improves the efficiency of the operators. With the new Serstech SERS kit, the detection levels are brought to a new level.
Serstech SERS kit is attached to the front of the instruments without the use of any tools.
The principle behind Raman instruments is based on physical properties of certain molecules and the electromagnetic signals they emit when energy is added to them by the instrument lasers. The signal is very weak, which requires the instruments to be highly sensitive, something that has only become possible to do in a handheld instrument in the last decade. Some substances are in addition not very Raman active, which means that the signal is even weaker, often weak enough to make it virtually impossible to detect. This is where SERS technology comes in. Serstech’s SERS kit greatly amplifies the signal to make it easily detectable with a handheld Raman instrument.
SERS stands for Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy and is also the first part of the company name Serstech. Serstech was founded in 2006 and the idea from the beginning was to develop small Raman instruments and SERS technology to make the instruments highly sensitive, well beyond what was commercially available at the time. Serstech’s SERS kit was launched in 2019 and is now in use by narcotics police and others who need to identify low or very low concentrations of illegal substances, which is sometimes the case in street-quality narcotics seized by police.
SERS works by creating a resonance between the dissolved sample and a silicon wafer that has been nano-coated with silver particles. Due to the resonance, the signal the instrument can read is amplified by a factor of at least 10,000 and signals from low concentration samples and from substances that have low Raman activity can be read and identified.
Colored substances, such as typical ecstasy pills and many organic compounds, are hard to identify for any Raman instrument. The reason for this is that electrons are excited by the laser emitted by the instrument and the excitation energy is emitted when the electron goes back to its original state. This very strong energy can blind the instrument and also obfuscate the Raman signal of the substance. By using the SERS kit, with the resulting amplification of the Raman signal, even many fluorescent samples can be identified by handheld Raman instruments.
Serstech’s SERS kit is patented and consists of an instrument accessory that is connected at the tip of the instrument and disposable SERS surfaces that are inserted in the kit. To identify a solid sample using the SERS kit, the solid sample needs to be dissolved in methanol and the solution is applied to a SERS surface. After a few seconds, the solvent has evaporated and the surface is inserted into the kit and the instrument identifies the substance. The identification of the substance is typically made in 10-20 seconds and the instrument is operated in the same way as if the SERS kit was not attached.
The SERS kit works with all of Serstech’s instruments – the Serstech 100 Indicator, the Serstech Arx and Serstech Arx+.
Serstech has today received another order from its European OEM partner, which signed an agreement with Serstech in May 2018. The order will be delivered and invoiced in October.
The order contains instruments, without software and substance libraries. The software and substance libraries are delivered and invoiced at a later stage, when the partner has configured the instruments based on end-user requirements.
“Our licensing mechanism allows for an efficient production and logistics process, for both us and our partners. This is showing its value now, as we are scaling up with a more capable distribution network”, says Stefan Sandor, Serstech CEO.
For further information please contact:
Stefan Sandor,
CEO, Serstech AB
phone +46 739 60 60 67
e-mail: ss@serstech.com
or visit www.serstech.com
About Serstech AB
Serstech delivers solutions for chemical identifications and has customers across the world, mainly in the safety and security industry. Typical customers are customs, police authorities, security organisations and United Nations. The solutions and technology are however not limited to security applications and potentially any industry using chemicals of some kind could be addressed by Serstech’s solution. Serstech is traded at Nasdaq First North and you find more information about the company at: www.serstech.com. Certified advisor to Serstech is Västra Hamnen Corporate Finance AB.
On Monday, September 3, Johan Raneke will start at Serstech and be responsible for the acquisition and development of strategic partners. Johan acquired 200.000 Serstech shares during the summer and has a total holding of 200.000 shares in Serstech.
“Johan brings a vast experience of building relationships with international partners and will contribute to our accelerated growth. I am very happy that Johan decided to join our team and also for his financial commitment to our success”, says Stefan Sandor, Serstech CEO.
Stefan Sandor has today acquired another 200.000 shares in Serstech at the average price of 2.00 SEK. Stefan now owns 800.000 shares, or approximately 1.25% of the company.
For further information please contact:
Stefan Sandor,
CEO, Serstech AB
phone +46 739 60 60 67
e-mail: ss@serstech.com
or visit www.serstech.com
About Serstech AB
Serstech delivers solutions for chemical identifications and has customers across the world, mainly in the safety and security industry. Typical customers are customs, police authorities, security organisations and United Nations. The solutions and technology are however not limited to security applications and potentially any industry using chemicals of some kind could be addressed by Serstech’s solution. Serstech is traded at Nasdaq First North and you find more information about the company at: www.serstech.com. Certified advisor to Serstech is Västra Hamnen Corporate Finance AB.
Serstech has today received its initial order from its first European OEM partner, which signed an agreement with Serstech in May 2017 . The order will be delivered and invoiced within two weeks.
The products have been adapted to the visual branding requirements from the partner and are functionally similar to Serstech’s own products. The adaptation work has been completed over the summer and the first 460 KSEK of this work has been invoiced and paid in August, with the remaining parts being invoiced in Q3 and Q4.
The partner is planning to launch the products under its own name in late September. The order is the first in what is expected to be a series of orders.
“We are delighted to receive this order and to see that the strategy adjustment we initiated in Q1 is already showing results. We have spent a lot of time the last six months on building distribution and we continue this work with increasing speed during the fall and winter.”, says Stefan Sandor, Serstech CEO.
For further information please contact:
Stefan Sandor,
CEO, Serstech AB
phone +46 739 60 60 67
e-mail: ss@serstech.com
or visit www.serstech.com
About Serstech AB
Serstech delivers solutions for chemical identifications and has customers across the world, mainly in the safety and security industry. Typical customers are customs, police authorities, security organisations and United Nations. The solutions and technology are however not limited to security applications and potentially any industry using chemicals of some kind could be addressed by Serstech’s solution. Serstech is traded at Nasdaq First North and you find more information about the company at: www.serstech.com. Certified advisor to Serstech is Västra Hamnen Corporate Finance AB.
Serstech has terminated the distribution agreement with the partner International Outsourcing Services Pte Ltd (IOS). The total value of delivered products and services so far to Indonesia is 30 MSEK, with the latest shipment in August 2017. By terminating the distribution agreement, the initial order, valued at 67 MSEK and received in May 2016, is also terminated.The termination will not have an impact on earlier reported results, but since full payment not have been recieved, there is a risk of a bad debt amounting to 2 MSEK which will be accounted for in the third quarter. Serstech and its advisors are considering the available legal options due to the inability of IOS to fulfill its obligations and take deliveries as defined in the purchase order.
Serstech renews its position in the Indonesian market and has appointed Wellcrown International Resources as new distribution partner for Indonesia. Wellcrown has extensive experience from the region and local representation in Indonesia and will focus on developing current and new business in the country. The new partner has established itself as a trusted supplier to both civilian and military customers throughout the region and will therefore have a greater reach than IOS, which focused only on civilian customers.
“Wellcrown meets our demands as we define a strategic key partner and we have a good relationship with them from other Asian markets. The potential in the Indonesian market is vast and given our successful track record there, we are confident that our new partner will be able bring the Indonesian business to a new level and strengthen the relationship with the end-customers”, says Stefan Sandor, Serstech CEO.
“To succeed in our industry with professional and demanding customers, a distribution partner needs to be proactive, service-minded and technically skilled. Replacing IOS with Wellcrown will improve the service level for our end-customers in Indonesia and the likelihood of resumed deliveries to the country”, continues Stefan Sandor.
For further information please contact:
Stefan Sandor,
CEO, Serstech AB
phone +46 739 60 60 67
e-mail: ss@serstech.com
or visit www.serstech.com
Serstech AB (Publ.) Is required to publish the information in this press release under the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication on August 20, 2018 at 08.30AM.
About Serstech AB
Serstech delivers solutions for chemical identifications and has customers across the world, mainly in the safety and security industry. Typical customers are customs, police authorities, security organisations and United Nations. The solutions and technology are however not limited to security applications and potentially any industry using chemicals of some kind could be addressed by Serstech’s solution. Serstech is traded at Nasdaq First North and you find more information about the company at: www.serstech.com. Certified advisor to Serstech is Västra Hamnen Corporate Finance AB.
New Agreements Build Future Business
Second Quarter 2018
· Net sales: KSEK 1558 (6 618)
· Profit for the period: KSEK -2 166 (4 022)
· Earnings per share: SEK -0,03 (0,09)
Period 1 January – 30 June 2018
· Net sales: KSEK 2 768 (9 557)
· Profit for the period: KSEK -5 599 (3 299)
· Earnings per share: SEK -0,09 (0,08)
· Serstech signs distribution agreement in China
· Granted patent for electronic autofocus
· Signs agreement with American OEM partner
· Signs global distribution and OEM agreement with major European partner
· Signs agreement with one of the CBRN industry’s strongest brands
During the second quarter, we made significant progress in the implementation of Serstech’s renewed strategy. The focus was and remains on building the foundation for indirect, repeat sales and we signed several important agreements during the quarter. As previously communicated, sales remain low during at least the first half of 2018 and the quarter’s net sales ended at just under SEK 1.6 million.
Serstech signed its first two OEM agreements in April and May – one in the US and one in Europe. The US agreement has so far resulted in two smaller transactions, with the US Coast Guard and Hungary. The European agreement includes rather extensive product customization, which will be completed in August, and the products will be ready for launch by our partner at the end of September. The development work is financed by the partner and will be invoiced during the third and fourth quarters of this year.
During the quarter further discussions were initiated with future OEM partners, and we expect significant and recurring business through the OEM channel in the future. The difference to selling through resellers is important as the scalability through the OEM channel is unlimited, with minimal recurrent input from Serstech and a geographic and industry coverage that Serstech could not have achieved on its own.
The reseller channel remains important for the company and during the quarter we have concluded agreements with partners in Malaysia, China, Indonesia, Myanmar, UK, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. We have also terminated several agreements with previous partners that do not meet our requirements for experience, capacity and competence. During the third and fourth quarter, Serstech will participate in several tradeshows worldwide and it is our intention to sign a large number of additional distribution agreements in the coming quarters and years. We expect revenues from the renewed reseller channel to materialize in the fourth quarter of this year and to continue to increase through 2019 and onwards.
During the quarter, an agreement was signed with Finnish company Environics, which has long and extensive experience in both military and civil security applications. Environics develops products that can identify and detect gases and radioactivity, but lack the ability to identify liquid and solid chemicals. During the summer, a bundled solution that identifies solid, liquid and gaseous substances has been marketed in the US to evaluate demand. The initial feedback has been positive, and the intention is to launch the joint solution in the first half of 2019 through both Environics’ and Serstech’s channels.
Serstech continues to recruit, and during the second quarter four positions have been filled – two development engineers, an R&D manager and a sales person. All four will start their employment on September 3, and we expect to have 13 employees by the end of the year, which is in line with 2017.
In April, Serstech’s patent application for handling autofocus in Raman Instruments was approved. The solution means that we can increase the performance of the instrument without introducing any moving parts, thus maintaining essential operational reliability and robustness.
The second quarter represented a decisive and successful take-off of our new strategy. With a renewed and expanding reseller channel, with global OEM partners and with an optimized organization, we are confident and very optimistic about the future.
Stefan Sandor, CEO, Serstech AB (publ)
For further information, please contact:
For further information please contact:
Stefan Sandor,
CEO, Serstech AB
phone +46 739 606067
e-mail: ss@serstech.com
Sophie Persson,
Chair of the board Serstech AB
phone: +46 733 865660
e-mail: sp@serstech.com
or visit www.serstech.com
Serstech AB (Publ.) Is required to publish the information in this press release under the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication on August 16, 2018 at 08.45:00 AMM.
Västra Hamnen Corporate Finance are certified avisors to Serstech AB
About Serstech AB
Serstech delivers solutions for chemical identifications and has customers across the world, mainly in the safety and security industry. Typical customers are customs, police authorities, security organisations and, since recently also United Nations. The solutions and technology are however not limited to security applications and potentially any industry using chemicals of some kind could be addressed by Serstech’s solution. Serstech is traded at Nasdaq First North and you find more information about the company at: www.serstech.com
Serstech has signed an agreement with Finnish CBRN solution provider Environics. Environics is one of the CBRN industry’s strongest brands and has a long history of providing detection systems to military and civilian defense agencies around the world.
Environics has industry-leading capabilities in gas detection systems and provides both hand-held and fixed gas detectors. Serstech provides the Serstech 100 Indicator, which can detect and identify more than 14000 substances in solid or liquid form.
The co-marketing agreement will allow Environics to market the Serstech 100 Indicator as a bundle with the Environics ChemPro100i hand-held gas detector. The combination of products can detect and identify a wide array of chemicals in all states of matter – gas, liquid and solid. The target groups are initially the 7000 HazMat teams in the US and fire departments.
The collaboration will be launched at the IAFC HazMat 2018 tradeshow in Baltimore, USA on June 7th.
For more information please contact :
Stefan Sandor
CEO, Serstech AB
Phone +46 739 606067
e-mail ss@serstech.com
Outi Suoninen,
VP Sales & Marketing, Environics OY
Phone +358 40 543 8350
e-mail outi.suoninen@environics.fi
About Serstech AB
Serstech delivers solutions for chemical identifications and has customers across the world, mainly in the safety and security industry. Typical customers are customs, police authorities, security organisations and, since recently also United Nations. The solutions and technology are however not limited to security applications and potentially any industry using chemicals of some kind could be addressed by Serstech’s solution. Serstech is traded at Nasdaq First North and you find more information about the company at: www.serstech.com
Certified advisor to Serstech is Västra Hamnen Corporate Finance AB
Sverker Göranson, former supreme commander of the Swedish Armed Forces, has acquired 10.700 shares in Serstech. Sverker joined the board in 2017 and is also active as advisor to the Saab Group in the United States.
Anna Werntoft, CEO of Stratiteq Sweden AB, has acquired 10.300 shares in Serstech. Anna joined the board in 2017 and is also on the board of directors of MINC Incubator in Malmö and Innovation Skåne AB.
The board of directors and management of Serstech now hold in total 1.861.600 shares, corresponding to 3% of the outstanding shares.
For further information please contact:
Stefan Sandor,
CEO, Serstech AB
phone +46 739 606067
e-mail: ss@serstech.com
Sophie Persson,
Chair of the board Serstech AB
phone: +46 733 865660
e-mail: sp@serstech.com
or visit www.serstech.com
About Serstech AB
Serstech delivers solutions for chemical identifications and has customers across the world, mainly in the safety and security industry. Typical customers are customs, police authorities, security organisations and, since recently also United Nations. The solutions and technology are however not limited to security applications and potentially any industry using chemicals of some kind could be addressed by Serstech’s solution. Serstech is traded at Nasdaq First North and you find more information about the company at: www.serstech.com
Certified advisor to Serstech is Västra Hamnen Corporate Finance AB
Serstech AB
info@serstech.com
Phone: +46 46 255 112
Åldermansgatan 13
SE-227 64 Lund
Sweden
Copyright Serstech AB 2020
