Industry Veteran Clint Kopp Joins as Chief Technology Officer
STONY BROOK, N.Y., Oct. 17, 2007 – Stonybrook Purification, a spinout of Stony Brook University, today announced the close of the first tranche of a $4.1 million Series A investment led by Battery Ventures. T2 Venture Capital (T2VC), the founding investor and early incubator of the company, also participated in this round, along with new investors Modern Water and TianDi Growth Capital.
Stonybrook Purification was co-founded by Ben Chu, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, and Ben Hsiao, Chairman of the Chemistry Department, at Stony Brook University. The company's patented technology is based on years of research by Professors Chu and Hsiao. The company will bring to market a novel concept for increasing the performance of high flux membranes for a variety of purification, filtration, and desalination applications. The technology has the potential to significantly increase the performance of and reduce the costs of processing water on a large scale.
The company also announced that water industry veteran Clint Kopp has joined as Chief Technology Officer. Kopp was previously VP R&D/Chief Technical Officer of Memtec, Ltd. Kopp helped guide Memtec's membrane technology development from inception to approximately $300 million in revenue and an acquisition by Siemens. "It's exciting to join a company at this stage, with so much opportunity in what is readily acknowledged as a multi-billion dollar worldwide market," said Kopp. "Because of Professor Chu and Professor Hsiao's scientific prowess, we are in an exceptional position to commercialize this technology. Today's financing will help us accelerate that path as we work to bring their discoveries to market."
T2VC's Managing Director Victor Hwang, also a company co-founder, is serving as interim CEO. T2VC is the venture affiliate of Larta Institute, a leading organization that commercializes technologies from government agencies and universities. Said Hwang, "It's satisfying to find such compelling technology and be in a position to secure investment and hire talent to build a company around it. We are lucky to attract someone of Clint Kopp's caliber, whose direct experience scaling membrane technology and whose in-depth knowledge of worldwide water markets is an ideal fit."
Professor Chu, said, "Although Professor Hsiao and I have been at the forefront of scientific research in this area for years, this is an incredible step for us. With 40% of the world lacking access to clean drinking water, we are very excited by the prospect of turning our breakthrough into a commercial product that can potentially improve the lives of millions of people."
"We have the opportunity to invest in a lot of companies in the advanced materials space and recognize the potential these advancements have to significantly impact many industries," said David Dreessen, Partner at Battery Ventures. "In the case of Stonybrook, we have a potential game changing technology intersecting with a great market opportunity."
The investors in Stonybrook combine clean technology expertise, worldwide reach, and experience commercializing early technologies:
— Battery Ventures: Battery is a $3B venture capital firm that invests in technology and innovation worldwide. The firm's Clean Tech and Advanced Materials portfolio ranges from solar and biofuels companies to leaders in water instrumentation and analytics, and includes: Advent Solar, Bright View Technologies, Luminus Devices, Nanoconduction, Lion Cells, Nova Analytics, Nova Technologies, Quantum Leap Packaging, Freshpoint, and SunEthanol.
— Modern Water: Headquartered in the UK, Modern Water was established to build and exploit a portfolio of water technologies to address problems of the availability of freshwater and the treatment and disposal of wastewater. Managed by an executive team which has long experience in the water industry, Modern Water is at the leading edge of new and important technology, which is vital to the future sustainability of the world's most precious commodity.
— T2VC: T2VC is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in spinouts from government and academia. The founders of T2VC are experts in technology commercialization, with unique expertise at the intersection of technology, venture capital, government, and academia.
— TianDi Growth Capital: TianDi Growth Capital builds global companies based in China through worldwide technology transfer. The firm strategically invests in growth-driving sectors of the Chinese economy, with a focus on: Alternative Energy and Environmental Technology. Seasoned investors include top US and China venture capitalists with deep networks in China and significant experience building global businesses.
About Stonybrook Purification
Stonybrook Purification is a startup company that has developed breakthrough technology to dramatically lower the cost of making clean water. The technology helps solve one of the major bottlenecks in water purification: the slow speed of filtration membranes. For more information please visit or contact Email.
For more information contact:
Karen Bommart
Battery Ventures
(781) 478-6600
Email
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