Molecular Imprints Completes $12.9 Million Financing

Molecular Imprints, Inc., in volume-production nanopatterning systems and solutions, announced the successful completion of $12.9 million in financing.

Investors in this round include Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Tokyo Electron Venture Capital, Wafra Investment Advisory Group, KT Venture Group, Alloy Ventures and Motorola Ventures. This latest investment brings the total amount raised by Molecular Imprints for the development and commercialization of its innovative Step and Flash Imprint Lithography (S-FIL) technology to $91 million—$73 million in strategic and venture capital financing, $15 million from federal government agencies, such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and $3 million from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund.

Molecular Imprints has made significant progress in several market segments, including semiconductors, hard disk drives (HDDs) and high-brightness light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Coupled with investments from customer joint development programs, this $12.9 million in new funding will enable further enhancement of its product portfolio and expansion of its operations to support rising industry demand for its nanopatterning systems. The company has already received multiple orders for its newest generation of advanced nanopatterning systems aimed at the HDD and semiconductor markets, including recently announced orders from Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and semiconductor industry consortium, SEMATECH. With interest growing around Molecular Imprints’ technology, the company is taking the necessary steps to be ready to support volume-production requirements in these multiple markets.

"This additional financing will enable further enhancements to our technology and product portfolio, and allow us to expand operations to support increasing demand for our products in a number of markets,” said David Gino, chief operating and financial officer of Molecular Imprints. "Looking a little further into the future we believe this financing will provide a funding bridge to a possible public offering in 2009."