Tantalum Corporation announced its expansion within the United States, adding an office in Menlo Park, Silicon Valley following a £2.5m investment.

The investment from Disruptive Capital Investment will augment the £1.4m grant from the UK Government to trial Tantalum’s Air Car system across London and other UK cities suffering from illegal levels of NOx and other particulate pollutants.

The new office in Menlo Park is led by technology industry veteran Baris Ruacan, who brings more than 20 years’ experience across US and international markets.

The office expansion and investment hopes to aid the organisation to scale rapidly across international markets, in turn, allowing the company to leverage Silicon Valley’s technology talent pool and help drive the US connected car market forward.  

Tantalum Corporation’s chief executive Ozgur Tohumcu (pictured) said: “This expansion puts Tantalum at the forefront of the burgeoning connected car market, positioning us at the heart of conversations around technology innovation and industry direction.

“Disruptive Capital is a great partner who supports our vision to transform the automotive experience, bringing the benefits of advanced driver insights to the vast majority of drivers around the world."

Disruptive Capital’s partner Lincoln Jopp said: “We are delighted that Disruptive Capital Investments has been given this opportunity to invest further in Tantalum, coming, as it does, on the back of the investment by Handysoft, the Korean automotive company, earlier in the year.

“At Disruptive Capital, we back great management and innovative technology which is disrupting markets; Tantalum has both and more besides.

“Tantalum is growing so fast, it’s hard to keep up; new offices and experts in Silicon Valley and Atlanta, new products, new contracts and new investment.”