Aalto University spinout Canatu Oy has secured $11.3m in funding adding to a $13.5m loan provided by European Investment Bank earlier this summer.
Canatu Oy, a spinout of Aalto University that is developing flexible films for touch displays, attracted €10m ($11.3m) in equity funding on Wednesday from Inventure and Infosto Group.
The round also featured an unnamed automotive company.
Founded in 2008, Canatu Oy produces flexible films and touch sensors. The technology exploits a hybrid carbon nanomaterial, dubbed Carbon Nanobud, invented in 2006 by professor Esko Kauppinen and his research team.
The spinout’s activities have thus far been focused on an unnamed client in the car industry. It will use the latest funding to develop solutions for the consumer electronics sector and attract additional clients from the automotive industry.
European Investment Bank previously provided a €12m loan in July 2016.
Troika Ventures led a $9m equity round in 2013 that included Inventure and Infosto. Tekes, Finland state-owned Technology Development Agency, injected a $3m loan at the same time. Those commitments brought Canatu Oy’s total capital to $15m.
Kauppinen said: “I have had the great pleasure to see the company evolve from a research lab to entering the market and beginning commercial manufacturing. Canatu is an exemplary success story in the field of nanotechnology.”
