Portfolio News
Austin's Nuventix raises $8.5 million
Investment could lead to mass production, maker of cooling devices says.
Austin American-Statesman
Robert Elder
8 January 2008
Nuventix Inc., an Austin-based company whose products cool lighting, electronics and other high-tech equipment, has raised $8.5 million in an expected $10 million round of venture capital investment.
Chief executive James Balthazar said he expects to finalize the remaining $1.5 million soon.
The company raised $6.5 million in its first round in 2005. The same investors returned for the current round: CenterPoint Ventures of Austin; InterWest Partners, with offices in Dallas and Menlo Park, Calif.; and New York-based Rho Ventures.
Nuventix offers devices that use air-powered cooling systems to dissipate heat from lighting and consumer electronics. The company's SynJet modules direct air jets to the parts of high-tech devices that require the most cooling.
The company's products can be used to cool semiconductors, computer processing units and electronics that use light-emitting diodes. Nuventix said the market for LEDs, such as for use in liquid crystal display products, is growing at more than 15 percent a year.
The technology can also help cool the racks of computer servers that make up corporate data centers.
Balthazar said the new investment will help take the company into volume production.
The company is currently selling prototype samples, he said.
Nuventix manufactures its products at a Flextronics plant in China.
Balthazar said the company expects to ship volume orders by April or May. Nuventix has 25 employees in Austin and one in Shanghai, China, he said.