UC Berkeley advanced materials spinout Nelumbo recently raised $5.5m in series A funding and will now partner Danfoss to develop a heat exchanger based on its materials.
Nelumbo, a US-based advanced materials producer spun out of University of California (UC) Berkeley, received an undisclosed amount of funding today from industrial conglomerate Danfoss.
Founded in 2015, Nelumbo designs advanced materials that enhance performance and prevent corrosion in heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC) systems. Danfoss will now help build a heat exchanger based on Nelumbo’s materials.
Nelumbo will increase its headcount to drive development for additional HVAC markets, having recently opened a pilot production facility. The company will recruit four employees by the end of 2018, adding to two engineers and a scientist hired in the past month.
Danfoss’s investment follows a $5.5m series A round recently closed by Nelumbo which featured unspecified investors.
The spinout builds on research from SinBerBest, a Singapore-based interdisciplinary research program managed by UC Berkeley that collaborates with Nanyang Technology University and National University of Singapore.
Lance Brockway, former vice-chairman of external partnerships at the Berkeley Postdoctoral Entrepreneur Program, co-founded Nelumbo with David Walther, who once worked at the Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center as a research engineer, and Liam Berryman, previously a researcher in UC Berkeley’s nanomanufacturing design lab.
Berryman, now chief executive of Nelumbo, said: “Nelumbo and Danfoss are breaking through the fundamental challenges that heat exchangers face today.
“Together we can deliver unique functionality to customers and significantly raise the bar for what these products can do. I am very excited to see our partnership make a lasting impact on the HVAC market.”
