BOSTON– Protective nanocoating company actnano announced that it has raised $12 million in a Series A funding round. Emerald Technology Ventures led the round and was joined by Material Impact, as well as Henkel Tech Ventures, GC Ventures America (PTT Global Chemical) and Ireon Ventures (Hellas Oil).
actnano is setting a new standard for electronics protection with its commercialized water and environmental resistant coating technology, Advanced nanoGuard™ (ANG). The company’s wet ANG coatings can be applied directly on connectors, antennas, LEDs and high heat generating components, allowing electronic manufacturers to comprehensively safeguard their devices for the first time.
“These days, electronics run the car. We make sure the electronics keep running even after the coffee spills,” said Taymur Ahmad, CEO of actnano. “When automotive electronics like autopilot systems interact with water or other environmental aggressors, the consequences can be dire. We’ve seen little to no innovation in the protective coating category in decades, and with the recent explosion of self-driving and technology-laden vehicles, a better solution was needed. actnano responded, creating a hydrophobic, electrically insulating coating that allows electrical connection through the coating. Since connections have historically had to remain uncoated and thus vulnerable to water damage, this innovation is an industry gamechanger. We are thrilled to add such an impressive investor syndicate to the actnano family. Their collective expertise and experience will be pivotal as we usher actnano in its next phase of growth.”
The funding round comes at a crucial time for the company, as they expand their automotive customer base with OEMs in Germany, Japan and Korea. Emerald Technology Ventures, a leader in industrial technology investments, is well positioned to help the actnano team accelerate its market adoption.
“The actnano team has demonstrated rapid technology adoption in notoriously challenging automotive and consumer electronics markets. The combination of their technical performance and strong value proposition are already driving expanding adoption by both OEMs across platforms and Tier-1 customers across applications,” said Neil Cameron, who will join the actnano board from Emerald. “We look forward to working with actnano, our syndicate partners and our Limited Partners to accelerate market adoption of their innovative coatings,” added Gina Domanig, Managing Partner of Emerald.
In addition to its cost and efficiency gains, actnano’s technology is human-safe, non-toxic and environmentally sustainable. This is a major departure from existing coating technologies, many of which rely on toxic materials, can pose serious health consequences for workers and are expensive to deploy. Material Impact sees the investment in actnano as core to its thesis of investing in world-changing products enabled by material science innovations.
“As electrification continues to expand into every industry, the need to protect the underlying and enabling circuitry becomes critical,” said Adam Sharkawy, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Material Impact. “We believe the fluid, self-healing coatings developed by actnano are well positioned to address that fast-growing need.”
As an expert in functional coatings for their Adhesive Technologies business, Henkel Tech Ventures understood the major gap that existed in the waterproof coatings market, and how transformative actnano’s technology could be for Henkel’s global customer network.
“As part of our venturing activities we are looking for novel and scalable formulated technologies providing unique benefits for growing markets”, explains Paolo Bavaj, Head of Corporate Venturing, Adhesive Technologies. “Functional coatings are a major focus topic for our Adhesive Technologies business. We are excited to work with actnano who has developed a conformal coating technology that protects entire printed circuit board systems, responding to the fast-growing demands especially in automotive electronics and consumer electronics. The technology has already proven its marketability and is commercially available. Together we aim to unlock new opportunities across Henkel´s extensive customer base in these markets globally.”
