Nanozar - getting carbon nanotubes applied
Carbon nanotubes offer revolutionary material properties. In 2002, B&W got to know a team of scientists in Zaragoza, Spain, dedicated to research on carbon nanotubes: production technologies, compatibilization, homogeneous mixing in matrix materials. All senior members of the team had worked abroad, and one of them even appeared on NASA´s list of the globally most recognized authorities in the field. B&W soon understood that the team had potential, and introduced the possibility of creating a spin-off to commercialize the research results.
As a part of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) network of state-owned research institutes, Nanozar met some initial regulatory obstacles. CSIC nevertheless proved to have a positive attitude towards entrepreneurship. Thus in 2004 it was decided to found the company Nanozar, dedicated to the exploitation of IPR created within the founding research group, while in parallel developing proprietary lines of investigation.
By mid 2007, after a first round of VC investment negotiations, Nanozar concluded that the conditions offered were not sufficiently attractive to proceed with a deal at pre-seed stage. Using our own (very limited) funds in combination with government grants and incubation support at the CSIC, Nanozar managed to form a small but self-financing portfolio of research activities oriented towards various high potential application markets for carbon nanotubes. Before the end of this decade, we expect to have two first products in the marketplace which are based on Nanozar-owned or controlled IPR. By 2009, we´ll talk to the VCs again….
