Latest nanotech investments, commercial agreements and rounds of finance, September-October 2020
Auckland-based Revolution Fibres has raised $6 million in a Series A funding round led by Movac, New Zealand’s most experienced technology investment firm. Founded in 2009 by Iain Hosie, Simon Feasey and Michael Perrett, Revolution Fibres has developed a unique technology to produce electro-spun nanofibres for use in a wide range of applications, such as filtration, skincare, sound absorption and composite reinforcement. Revolution Fibres has 15 employees and has achieved early sales traction in several markets.
ASICS subsidiary, ASICS Ventures Corporation, has invested in Seevix Material Sciences Ltd., which was founded in 2014 following over a decade of academic research at the Hebrew University in Israel. Seevix produces a patented man-made spidersilk called SVX, which possesses natural spidersilk’s extraordinary strength and elasticity. SVX spidersilk is durable, yet sustainable and biodegradable. Seevix manufactures SVX through biomimicry in a controlled fermenter-based process. SVX is a bio protein functional silk, with sustainability characteristics possessing the fibre’s natural properties, to create thinner, lighter and tougher products on a commercial scale, according to ASICS.
LIGC, an Israeli maker of Laser-Induced Graphene filters (LIG), raised $3M in Series A funding. Wuhan-based public listed company Hubei Forbon Technology Co. Ltd made the investment. The company intends to use the funds to scale and manufacture its filters. LIGC Application is pioneering new technology, offering a scalable approach for producing and patterning porous graphene foam, using a commercially available laser in ambient temperature. Major commercial applications for this technology include air filtration, water purification, printed circuit boards, gas and strain sensors, wound healing, sanitary textile, hygiene pads, water splitting, fuel cell catalysis, and more.
Cardea Bio Inc., developing Graphene-based Biology-gated Transistors (“Cardean Transistors™”) has raised $7.5M in Series A2 Financing. The capital will help accelerate the growth and development of the Company’s proprietary Tech+Bio Infrastructure and chipsets.
Specialist graphite and graphene producer Tirupati Graphite has proposed to potentially undertake an initial public offering (IPO) and is expected to publish its registration document, which has been submitted to the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for approval.
Nanosys has completed a $20 million investment round to enable the expansion and adoption of heavy metal free quantum dots. The company has raised a total of $250 million in lifetime revenue. The new investment funds will be used to scale Nanosys’ business and generate further interest in the adoption of quantum dots. Recently, Nanosys formed a sales distribution agreement with Nagase & Co. Ltd. to distribute Nanosys quantum dot materials for various applications worldwide. The company also entered into a quantum dot materials supply and service agreement with Shoei Chemical to manufacture quantum dot materials exclusively for Nanosys.
