NuMat Technologies, an advanced materials startup focused on programmable nanomaterials, has received an investment from Tin Shed Ventures, Patagonia’s strategic investment arm.
The overall $12.4 million funding round was led by OS Fund, a New York-based VC firm started by Braintree Founder Bryan Johnson. Other participating investors include Osage University Partners and Patagonia’s Tin Shed Ventures, which invests in startups offering solutions to the environmental crisis.
NuMat claims to be the first company in the world to commercialize products enabled by metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), a class of nanomaterials. NuMat designs and integrates MOFs into next-generation storage, separation and purification systems.
NuMat will use the new capital to expand the company’s high-throughput computational and experimentation capabilities and to increase the company’s manufacturing footprint to satisfy customer demand in the United States, Europe and East Asia. The funding follows several recent company milestones, including the commissioning of: an ISO9001 certified production line, located in Skokie, IL, dedicated to the assembly of MOF-enabled storage, separation and purification systems for global export and an ION-X gas fill plant in Sihwa, South Korea, in partnership with Versum, a global leader in the specialty chemicals industry.
“We’re thrilled to partner with OS Fund and Osage University Partners to realize NuMat’s vision of commercializing molecularly engineered products that enable paradigm shifts in how we create and use resources,” said Benjamin Hernandez, NuMat’s co-founder and CEO. “These investments allow NuMat to solidify its technology leadership position as an integrator of choice for metal-organic frameworks. We’re proud to be a U.S. Midwestern company manufacturing IP-intensive products for global markets.”
“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,” said Jeff Klunzinger, co-founder of OS Fund, who also serves on NuMat’s board of directors. “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.”
