Arctic Sand Technologies, a US–based power conversion semiconductor company spun out of university Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2011, has raised $9.6m in its series A round from a consortium including Germany-based Dialog Semiconductor.
Energy Technology Ventures (ETV), a multi-corporate venture capital firm on behalf of oil major ConocoPhillips, industrial conglomerate General Electric (GE) and utility NRG Energy, was the other strategic investor.
The financial investors cane from venture capital firms Arsenal Venture Partners and Northwater Capital and Ray Stata, founder of a chip company and his eponymous family office.
Mark Tyndall, vice-president of business development and corporate strategy at Dialog, said: “In the mobility markets in which we play, the combination of enhanced energy efficiency with space and cost savings is the perfect mix.”
Kevin Skillern, managing director of GE Ventures, added: “GE has a long history as both a supplier and user of power electronics technology and has expanded its power electronics business significantly over the past few years.
“That expertise helped ETV see how Arctic Sand’s innovations can enable better performance, stronger economics and reduced environmental impact in a wide variety of applications.”
Nadia Shalaby, chief executive and co-founder of Arctic Sand, said: “A staggering 80% of energy generated worldwide is lost as heat due to power-conversion losses.
“Such excessive power inefficiency results in both unnecessary electricity expenses and significantly oversized distribution and generation in serving the world’s rapidly expanding computing and data storage needs.”
Dr. Shalaby explained that data centres alone spend more than $50bn annually on electricity—while emitting more CO2 than the entire airline industry.