Nanochip Inc., a ten-year-old MEMS-based storage company that counts Microsoft Corp. amongst its backers, has secured $10 million of a proposed $15 million Series C financing round. The funding was led by Intel Capital, a new Nanochip investor.
Nanochip (Fremont, Calif.), founded in 1996, has been developing a nano-probe array based silicon storage chip which would allow tens of gigabytes of storage per chip. The company licensed phase-change non-volatile storage technology from Ovonyx Inc. in August 2004.
Nanochip said it is designing a family of removable, rewritable data storage products for use in a wide range of future consumer electronics products.
Also participating in the Nanochip C Round is JK&B Capital, a venture capital firm that led the B funding round. The company said it would use the money from the latest investment round to fund continued advances in technology and development of the company's first commercially available storage products.
“This investment led by Intel Capital will help Nanochip execute on its vision to bring the benefits of MEMS ultra-high-capacity memory to a variety of consumer applications,” said Gordon Knight, president and chief executive officer of Nanochip, in a statement.
“Intel Capital, through its relationship with Intel, plans to work closely with Nanochip in developing these next generation devices,” said Keith Larson, director of manufacturing, memory and digital health sectors for Intel Capital, in the same statement.
