Numat Technologies, a US-based nanoporous materials developer spun out from Northwestern University, closed a $12.4m funding round yesterday featuring Tin Shed Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of clothing retailer Patagonia.
The round was led by venture capital fund OS Fund and also featured spinout-focused investment firm Osage University Partners and unnamed, existing shareholders.
Founded in 2012, Numat produces atomically-engineered materials known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). Their porosity can be precisely adjusted, making it possible for the products to interact with target molecules in a specific way.
MOFs have applications in a wide range of areas, from gas storage and semiconductor manufacturing to pharmaceuticals. In the medical sector, for example, Numat’s technology enables the controlled release of small molecules for therapeutics.
The money will allow Numat to boost its computational and experimentation capabilities, and to expand its manufacturing capacity to cope with demand in the US, Europe and east Asia.
Numat raised $7m in funding from undisclosed investors in 2016, according to a regulatory filing, after it had received $2m in a seed round in 2013 led by angel network Goose Society of Texas and backed by Owl Investment Group.
– The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.