Latest investments, deals and funding initiatives in nanotech June-July 2017.

Dotz Nano, an Israel-based company established to commercialize a graphene quantum dot production process developed at Rice University’s Tour Labs, has received firm commitments to raise $1.5 million via a placement of shares.
The placement was conducted to take advantage of cost sharing grant funding to access up to circa $2 million in grants over the next 12-18 months. The initial grant was awarded to Dotz by the U.S.-Israel Binational Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation. Additional grant funding is directed from the Office of the Chief Scientist of Israel and from the Ministry of Economy.
Prysmian Group, a leader in the energy and telecom cable systems industry, and Nanocomp Technologies Inc., a U.S. company specialised in the production of carbon nanotube-based products and materials, have signed a technology cooperation agreement aimed at testing and improving the use of these technologies in power transmission, power distribution, telecom networks, control and instrumentation applications.
The firms have also agreed to evaluate, at a later stage of the project, whether to commence large-scale production of products and technologies developed as part of this research. The interest of the two companies is driven by the high potential offered by Nanocomp’s Miralon® carbon nanotube’s intrinsic characteristics in terms of mechanical resistance, low weight, chemical inertness, very high degree of flexibility, and electrical and heat conductivity.
Carbice, an Atlanta-based startup spun out of Georgia Tech’s Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology that manufactures advanced materials for effective thermal design of electronic devices has raised $1.5 million in a series seed round co-led by TechSquare Labs and GRA Venture Fund. Carbice tape is designed to replace 100s of existing heat dissipation products with one simple and easy-to-apply solution that serves as a new high-performance platform for building future generations of electronic devices.
Government of Canada through through Sustainable Development Technology Canada has invested $15.5 million in five Ontario cleantech companies. $2.7 million of funding has been allocated to diamond like nanocoatings company 3E Nano Inc. to develop a new window coating to make buildings and vehicles more energy efficient, reducing energy consumption. The company’s nano-thin DLC based coatings are scalable and can be produced using low-cost industry standard plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition processes on large area flexible substrates. “If you have sunlight coming into a room through a window, we can reflect the heat portion away from it coming into the room,” said o-founder Nicholas Komarnycky. “Essentially it behaves like a transparent insulated wall.”
Graphene producer Group NanoXplore will merge with Graniz Modal, a public company that trades in the Canadian stock exchange, to become a public company. The company announced brokered private placement financing (the “Offering”) of subscription receipts (the “Subscription Receipts”) sold at a price of $0.45 per Subscription Receipt for gross proceeds of $9,697,082.40, well above the initial proposed range of $3 million to $5 million.
Smartphone accessory manufacturer Anker is using graphene in a bid to crack the wireless, in-ear headphones market. A Kickstarter project for its Zolo Liberty+ headphones has currently raised $2.8 million, easily surpassing its $50,000 goal in just one day. Further information at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1792059063/liberty-the-first-zero-compromise-total-wireless-e?ref=nav_search