Advano Secures $500,000 in Latest Funding Round

Three-year-old nanoparticle manufacturing and processing company Advano has closed a seed funding round at $500,000 led by national investors including Fifty Years VC and Social Impact Capital. The New Orleans Startup Fund also contributed to the startup at an undisclosed amount.

The New Orleans-based company is on a mission to accelerate the renewable energy revolution using scalable nanotechnology.

“Most nanotechnology innovations never leave the bench-top due to prohibitive cost or inability to scale,” shared Advano founder Alex Girau. “What differentiates Advano is that we introduce fundamental engineering principles at the earliest point possible when developing a nanomaterial or nanomanufacturing process.”

With its latest funding, Advano will focus on completing a lithium-ion battery prototype that includes the company’s proprietary silicon-based battery material. The funding will also increase Advano’s material production capacity to send samples to potential customers.

“At Fifty Years, we back entrepreneurs solving the world’s biggest problems with technology,” said Seth Bannon, Managing Partner of Fifty Years VC. “Advano’s silicon nanoparticle technology has many potential applications, the most exciting of which is their ability to radically increase the performance of lithium ion batteries. By doing so, Advano will help accelerate the transition from petroleum based power to electric power. This is exactly the sort of impact we get excited about.”