Urbix bites into $3.5m series A

Urbix Resources, a US-based graphite production spinout from University of Arizona, closed an oversubscribed $3.5m series A round today backed by unnamed, existing investors.
Unnamed members of the spinout’s management team and a Mexico-based management company also participated in the round.
Urbix Resources operates a graphite production plant in Mexico that supplies graphite ore which is subsequently refined into graphene powders and other graphite-derived products.
Graphene is a two-dimensional material sought for its light, compact profile and energy conduciveness, however industry has grappled with problems scaling production of the material.
Urbix hopes to eventually manufacture commercial quantities for approximately $1 per gram. It licensed a portfolio of technologies from Arizona in January 2018 covering processes including a low-temperature graphene purification technique and a graphene exfoliation reactor.
The ideas were conceived by Palash Gangopadhyay, Urbix’s chief technology officer since January 2017 and an adjunct research professor in Arizona’s College of Optical Sciences.
The capital will be used to pursue Urbix’s strategic objectives, which include building pilot plants for the purification and reactor technologies. Urbix does not appear to have previously disclosed details of funding.
Nico Cuevas, executive chairman of Urbix Resources, said: “It was gratifying to find ourselves in a position where our funding objectives were oversubscribed.
“This allows us to focus on our main initiatives including the construction of our low-cost, cleantech pilot purification facility and the construction of our proprietary pristine graphene reactor.”