Osage University Partners was among the backers in Numat, which is developing molecularly engineered products based on research at Northwestern University.
Numat Technologies, a US-based nanoporous materials developer spun out from Northwestern University, closed a $12.4m funding round yesterday featuring spinout-focused investment firm Osage University Partners.
The round was led by OS Fund and also featured Tin Shed Ventures, the corporate venturing division of clothing retailer Patagonia, 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 spinout exploits big data technology to generate millions of hypothetical structures and simulate their properties, before validating select products through an automated workflow.
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 previously obtained $7m in funding in 2016, according to a regulatory filing, after it received $2m in a seed round in 2013 led by angel network Goose Society of Texas. The seed round also included Owl Investment Group.
Jeff Klunzinger, co-founder of OS Fund and member of Numat’s board of directors, said: “Similar to precision medicine in the healthcare world, Numat’s approach of programming MOFs specifically to interact with targeted molecules has the potential to dramatically expand the scarce resources available to the manufacturing world.
“Numat’s total solutions approach of designing purpose-built, intelligent systems will position the company to solve persistent innovation challenges that matter in numerous large markets.”