Huffington Capital Corp., a capital pool company, has entered into a letter of intent for the acquisition of graphene producer Nano Graphene Inc. (Grapheneca) for approximately $4.5 million. Grapheneca is a privately owned, commercial scale graphene and graphene based materials producer and supply company headquartered in New York. Grapheneca has developed a production facility in New York and is now producing high quality, un-oxidized, ordered, pristine graphene flakes with different sizes (depending upon customer’s requirement).
Graphmatech AB, a Swedish materials technology startup and SynerLeap member, has closed a seed investment round led by ABB Technology Ventures (ATV), the venture capital arm of ABB, and Stockholm-based Walerud Ventures. Three other investors participated in the round. Graphmatech has invented and patented a technology to ensure the separation of graphene flakes during the graphene production process, a difficult and until now unsolved problem in the creation of usable graphene. The result, Aros Graphene®, is a powder that can be dissolved in water, oil, plastics or metals, utilized to coat surfaces or 3D-printed without loss of graphene’s properties.
Dotz Nano Ltd. has raised AUS$2.5 million in a private placement in Australia at A$0.09 per share. The company issued 27.8 million new shares to investors and plans to use the funds to finance commercialization activities. Dotz Nano manufactures and markets graphene quantum dots (GQDs) used in various industrial applications.
Automotive seat manufacturer Faurecia has invested in Promethient, Inc, who have developed a new graphene-enhanced seat warmer technology. Promethient designs and produces Thermavance, a climate control technology that is adaptable for multiple vehicle thermal use cases. Thermavance heats and cools through conductive heat transfer, offering significantly higher efficiency than current convective technology. The equity investment is from Faurecia Ventures, the investment arm of Nanterre, France-based Faurecia, the sixth-largest auto supplier in the world.
ZNShine Solar has won a contract to provide 37.5MW of PV modules to Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), India’s largest power generation equipment manufacturer. The deal makes ZNShine Solar the first overseas module supplier to win a contract with BHEL. According to the contract, 10% of the shipment will be graphene-coated solar panel and all deliveries will be made by October 2018.
Talga Resources, has announced an oversubscribed institutional placement that raised proceeds of approximately $8.5 million AUD (around $6.3 million USD). The Company plans to apply the Placement proceeds towards further business growth and development including Li-ion battery graphite and graphene product development (and scale up of battery anode commercial samples towards product marketing/offtake agreements).
Versarien has signed an agreement with U.S-based firm AECOM, a Fortune 500 company, to explore the potential of its graphene-based Nanene in construction. AECOM is involved in various construction projects from planning new cities and building skyscrapers to “repairing damaged environments.” AECOM will initially be working on a project involving the incorporation of Versarien’s proprietary Nanene few layer graphene nano-platelets into large-scale polymer structures used in civil infrastructure projects, with a view to increasing their structural strength.
Versarien is also set to acquire a 62 per cent stake in Spanish company Gnanomat (GNA). GNA, based in the Parque Cientifico Madrid will utilise Versarien’s graphene products in an environmentally friendly, scalable production process for energy storage devices.
Versarien will pay £2.6m to acquire the stake with the deal subject to certain administrative completion conditions. The consideration will be settled by £673,000 in cash, the issue of new shares in GNA to Versarien, and the issue of 1,316,278 new ordinary shares of 1 pence each in Versarien to existing GNA shareholders.The company has also entered into a collaboration agreement with AXIA Materials to develop graphene-enhanced composite materials and smart graphene devices using both Nanene graphene nano platelets and proprietary Graphinks graphene inks. AXIA, based in South Korea, develops advanced thermoplastic composite material solutions under its LiteTex brand for the automotive, sports, electronics and building sectors, and produces pre-fabricated buildings under its Pixel Haus brand. Versarien will initially work with AXIA on two projects:
1. Smart Buildings – Versarien’s Graphinks will be used to incorporate sensors and thermal devices into composite building panels and Versarien’s Nanene will be used to develop graphene enhanced materials which will be used in structural composites. 2. Electric Vehicle applications – Versarien’s Graphinks will be used to add smart systems to a composite electric vehicle battery tray and Versarien’s Nanene will be used to improve the properties of the composite structure. The battery tray is being developed with automotive battery system manufacturers for use by global automotive OEMs.
Graphite India Ltd’s wholly owned subsidiary in Netherlands, Graphite International BV has signed a definitive Agreement for investment of up to US $ 18.595 million in General Graphene Corporation, for approximately 46% stake in the Company. General Graphene is involved in development of Graphene sheets for commercial applications. The investment will be made in multiple tranches based on achievement of agreed milestones in the process of development and establishing manufacturing capabilities for the commercial production of Graphene sheets.
Verditek Plc is raising GBP 2 million, pre-expenses, for its new solar factory in Italy and a graphene project. The funding will support the ramp up of the solar factory in Lainate, Italy and its working capital requirement. At the plant the company will make light-weight solar panels. In addition, Verditek said the proceeds give it additional financial flexibility to pursue the “very promising work” with Cambridge-based technology firm Paragraf Ltd as part of their graphene joint venture.
