Carbice, an Atlanta-based nanotechnology company born out of Georgia Tech, has closed a $15 million Series A funding round. The round was led by London-based Downing Ventures and Bay Area-based Toyota AI Ventures.
The funding is exciting news for a company that is developing technologies that can be found both in our phones and in satellites launching into orbit this year. As engineers who work on creating the next big gadget will tell you, electronic devices generate a lot of heat.
In order to improve safety and performance, Carbice® Carbon is designed to dissipate heat to make sure devices don’t overheat. This is done through Carbice’s carbon nanotubes, which was developed by professor-turned-entrepreneur Baratunde Cola out of Georgia Tech’s Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology.
In consumer electronics, carbon nanotube technology can help lower heat from devices through their commercialized thermal tape, thus limiting the chances for devices bursting into flames as we saw with the Samsung Galaxy Note 7.
Hypepotamus interviewed founder Cola back in 2017 to learn about how the company got off the ground, its technology, and what it was like building from ATDC and Tech Square.
Since then, the team has taken its nanotechnology to the International Space Station during a 14-month test of its thermal management technology. The company says satellites can save as much as $1,000 per square inch of thermal filler interface when using Carbice Carbon.
Toyota AI Ventures sees Carbice’s technology as important for manufacturing the electronics here on Earth and those in the sky. “Carbice Carbon forms as a dry adhesive pad, allowing it to be consistently and easily applied and reworked,” said Toyota AI’s founding managing partner Jim Adler in a statement “This novel thermal interface product allows for simplified management over traditional wet thermal pastes and glues. Carbice Carbon is already used in satellites and a variety of applications and environments here on earth. What’s more, their batch manufacturing process has been refined over a decade to grow high-quality material in minutes.
This novel thermal interface product allows for simplified management over traditional wet thermal pastes and glues
Jim Adler
Toyota AI Ventures
In addition to the funding, Carbice announced it is bringing on from VP of semiconductor sales for IBM Hal Laskey and former thermal products leader at Airbus Bianca Cefalo as Director of International Business Development.
According to a statement released by Downing Ventures, Carbice will use the funds to grow its sales and marketing teams and work on scaling up production. Previous investors in a 2017 seed round included Tech Square Labs and GRA Venture Fund.
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