Canatu Closes €4.7 M Financing Round
Canatu a leading edge nanotechnology company commercializing carbon NanoBud thin films for the electronics, optics and energy sectors has announced a €4.7 Million investment package from Inventure, Infosto and Tekes (the Finnish technology development agency) to fund its production development.
Canatu's first products are flexible, robust and environmentally friendly transparent conductor films for user interfaces such as touch screens. Sami Lampinen of Inventure will join former Nokia CTO, Yrjö Neuvo, Aalto University Professor, Esko Kauppinen and CEO, David Brown on the Board of Directors. Ari Ahola of Infosto, Canatu's original angel investor, will continue as Chairman.
“We at Canatu are delighted to welcome Inventure to our team and to have Infosto reinvest.
Both are proven and well respected investors whose collective experience, energy and focus will be invaluable in driving our final push to market", said David Brown, CEO of Canatu.
"Canatu is one of Finland's most promising nanotechnology companies providing disruptive technology to fast growing global touch screen and haptic interface markets. We believe that Canatu will play a significant role in the future display industry", said Sami Lampinen, Managing Director of Inventure.
Inventure is a technology investor in early stage companies, actively supporting growth oriented entrepreneurs to internationalize Nordic success stories.
Inventure's entrepreneur driven team works actively with the portfolio companies and brings their knowledge and network's support. Founded in 2005, Inventure manages funds with over €53 million in total capital base. Inventure's portfolio companies include Beneq, Conmio, Freespee, Protie, Rightware, Silex Microsystems, and Upstream Engineering.
Ahola was a fighter pilot for the Finnish Air Force until 1993. He is the owner and CEO of Infosto Group, an investor in early stage companies. In addition to Canatu, Infosto’s portfolio companies include, Academica, BioZone Scientific International, Confidex and Qvantel. Successful investments and trade sale exists in Finland have been Infosto Mediat and Suomen Terveystalo.
Founded in 2004, Canatu is a spin-off from the Helsinki University of Technology (now Aalto University). Canatu's business is the production and sales of a new class of versatile nanomaterial based films and components.
Canatu has developed a novel form of carbon called “NanoBuds”, and a new way to directly produce high value components on any substrate from this material by Direct Dry Printing. These components improve the performance and reduce the cost of optical and electrical devices and diminish their environmental footprint.
Canatu is currently developing its flexible thin film NanoBud components and production processes to supply display, touch, photovoltaic, tracking and haptic customers in the optics, energy and electronics sectors.
Canatu has patents and patents pending covering: NanoBuds and their applications in, for instance, displays, electronics, optics, energy storage and drug delivery, novel Carbon Nanotube and NanoBud production methods, novel CNT and NanoBud separation methods, methods for characterizing nanomaterials, CNT and NanoBud thin film and component production methods and a wide array of NanoBud based devices. Consequently, Canatu has important IP in the entire value chain from synthesis to products.
