Follow the Money
A monthly look at who in nanospace is getting funding and who's giving it.
© Copyright 2006 Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech Report
April 2006
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CSwitch
www.cswitch.com
Location:
Santa Clara, CA
CEO:
Doug Laird
Funding Announced:
4/20/06
Investors:
Harris & Harris Group [TINY], Bay Partners, ATA
Ventures and Charles River Ventures
Funding Amount:
$24 million (Series B)
Notes:
Cswitch was founded in late 2003 by former executives
of Transmeta Corporation [TMTA] and SGI to develop ad-
vanced, low power SOC for a wide range of communication
based applications. CSwitch raised $11 million in first-round
financing. The company has 45 employees, expanding to 70 by
year end.
Outlook:
CSwitch is in "stealth mode" according to the CEO
and venture capital investors involved in the deal. Our team
discovered that Cswitch will likely be revealing more informa-
tion over the summer. Cswitch plans to enter the market with
products in the first quarter of 2007.
Nanochip
www.nanochip.com
Location:
Freemont, CA
CEO:
Gordon Knight
Funding Announced:
4/18/2006
Investors:
Intel Capital [INTC] (lead), JK&B Capital, NEA As-
sociates, Microsoft [MSFT]
Funding Amount:
$10 million
Notes:
Nanochip is developing a new class of ultra-high-capac-
ity MEMS-based storage chips. These new chips with bit-den-
sities enabling the storage of tens of gigabytes per chip or the
equivalent of many high-definition feature-length videos use a
nano-probe array technology that goes far beyond the expected
limits of conventional lithography used in present semicon-
ductor memory chips. Nanochip is designing a family of re-
movable, rewritable data storage products for use in a wide
range of future consumer electronics products that will require
data storage capacities that exceed the physical limitations of
today's semiconductor memory technology.
Outlook:
This investment will help Nanochip work with Intel
on the development of very high capacity storage chip prod-
ucts. Nanochip will use the proceeds from this investment
round to fund continued advances in technology and develop-
ment of the company's first commercially available storage
products. In the last two years, Nanochip engineering teams
have overcome several significant media physics challenges.
During that time, the company has applied for more than 20
patents.
Venture Capital Funding
National Science Foundation
Funding:
University of Massachusetts - Amherst
Funding Announced:
4/24/06
Funding Amount:
$16 million
Notes:
The University of Massachusetts at Amherst has been chosen to
host one of only 16 Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers in the
nation, and has been awarded $16 million to establish the Center for Hi-
erarchical Manufacturing. The Center for Hierarchical Manufacturing
(CHM) will concentrate on three areas of research: nanoelectronics, bio-
nanotechnology, and nanomaterials and processing. Massachusetts Gov-
ernor Mitt Romney said that the John Adams Innovation Institute is
contributing $2 million in state matching funds to connect the center's
research with Massachusetts companies, and that he is filing legislation to
secure an additional $5 million in matching funds to help create new
manufacturing opportunities and stimulate economic development.
European Commission
Funding:
Infineon, AMD, Fraunhofer Institute Joint Venture
Funding Announced:
4/24/06
Funding Amount:
$289 million
Notes:
The European Commission awarded a grant of 233 million
euros to the nanotechnology joint venture between Infineon Tech-
nologies [IFX], AMD [AMD] and the German Fraunhofer Institute
that opened in Dresden last year. The Centre for Nanoelectronic Tech-
nologies (CNT) is part of Dresden's 700 million euro effort to establish
itself as the "third European centre of advanced research in nanoelec-
tronics", after LETI in France and IMEC in Belgium. The facility pro-
vides 800m² of cleanroom space on Infineon's research and manufac-
turing site in Dresden. Opened in June 2005, the center aims to
develop silicon geometries below 50nm.
Target: Oxford NanoScience Ltd.
Acquirer:
Imago Scientific Corp
Amount:
$4.35 million
Date:
4/11/2006
Notes:
Madison, Wisconsin-based Imago Scientific
(see Companies to
Watch, May 2002) purchased British atom probe company Oxford
Nanoscience Ltd. from publicly traded Polaron
(see Companies to
Watch, March 2004).According to Polaron, Imago will pay $2.25 million
in cash and $2.1 million in preferred stock for Oxford. The cash will be
paid in staggered amounts, with $1.5 million paid on completion, an ad-
ditional $500,000 after 12 months and the remainder 18 months later.
Imago's flagship product, the LEAP 3000X Metrology System, is a high
performance atom probe microscope providing 3D, atomic resolution,
compositional imaging and analysis to research and industry. Imago ex-
pects Oxford to bolster the attractiveness of Imago's product lines to the
semiconductor industry.
Government Funding
M&A
