Eurekite, a Twente-based nanotech ceramics startups, has raised one million euro from the European branch of the seed and pre-seed-stage technology commercialization VC Cottonwood Technology Fund both companies announced this week.
Hailing form New Mexico, USA, last year, it’s the second investment of General Partner and CTF Euro Lead Ray Quintana. Previously Cottonwood invested 1.6 million in bird drone startup Clear Flight Solutions. As a part of the deal Quintana will join the board of Eurekite.
Eurekite claims to be the world’s first provider of a new nanoceramic that combines the flexibility and lightweight of a polymer with the strength, heat-resistant and electrical insulation properties of normal ceramics. The material provides furthermore unique electrical, catalytic and filtering characteristics and is not brittle. These properties make the new material interesting for manufactures of mobile phones, lithium-ion batteries, cars and for the production of sensors that are used in the harsh environments in the oil and gas industry. The first product the startup plans to bring to the market is a printed circuit board with these properties. Eurekite is a spin-off of the material science research done at the renowned nanotechnology institute MESA+ of the University of Twente.
“We found Eurekite in one of the student labs in the MESA+ institute and immediately recognized the potential”, said Quintana in a conversation with StartupJuncture. According to Quintana the technology is ‘very disruptive.’ “While a lot of people are working in the field of unique materials to get similar results this is actual ceramic. It has the same insolation capabilities of glass fiber at 1/7th of the volume. That’s an amazing combination”, he says.
“We are already receiving customer interest internationally across applications as diverse as oil & gas sensors, mobile phone antenna’s, lithium-ion battery energy density and performance upgrades, high power electronics for electric vehicles and even solar energy, says Gerard Cadafalch, co-founder and CEO of Eurekite, about the company’s success so far. “Cottonwood’s support has opened additional doors and provides the capital needed to begin delivering working prototypes and purchasing the equipment needed to set up initial scaling capabilities.”
Photo by Pieter van Marion (creative commons via Flickr)