ZettaCore Lands $21M for Molecular Electronics, Energy Storage in the Works

ZettaCore Inc. has raised a $21 million C round to help it take its molecular materials for the electronics industry to market – but energy storage is also on the startup's radar.

The Denver, Colo.-based startup works with molecular materials to improve the performance and shrink the size of semiconductors. It intends to use its Series C funding to expand internationally, speed commercialization of its technology and create new products, CEO Subodh Toprani said in a statement.

Unlike conventional technologies that see polymer and semiconductor components lose efficacy as they're shrunken down, ZettaCore says its technology can create molecules a few nanometers in size that retain their properties. But its "molecular solution" can be made using today's semiconductor and microelectronics equipment, it says.

ZettaCore's technology can also be applied to energy storage, the company notes on its website. Toprani told the Cleantech Group that the company is looking into ionic liquids to store heat from solar thermal power plants, as well as improve energy storage in capacitors and other high energy-density, high-temperature devices. 

The company, founded in 2001, previously raised $55 million, the Cleantech Group reported. Last month it launched its "Molecular Interface" technology, aimed at improving interconnect densities in integrated circuit substrates.

New investors include Globis Capital Partners, Itochu Technology Ventures, Yasuda Enterprise Development, Epic Ventures and Panasonic Ventures, the U.S. venture arm of electronics giant Panasonic. Panasonic is looking for ways to incorporate ZettaCore's technology into its products, Panasonic Ventures Partner Dilip Sampath said in a prepared statement.

Previous investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Radius Ventures, Oxford Biosciences, Access Ventures, Garrett Capital, and Stanford University also participated in the Series C round.