GS Venture summed up the results of the competition among venture projects using NCM

December 25, 2014, the results of the final of the contest for practical application of nanostructured carbon materials (NCM) held by the GS Venture corporate venture fund and Nanocarbon Materials LLC (Technopolis GS) were announced. The expert jury singled out three teams that submitted solutions closest to the conditions of the contest.

The aim of the venture projects contest in the NCM sector was to find relevant and promising ideas of practical commercial application of a certain carbon nanostructured material (carbon nanotubes and nanofibers), as well as to assist the authors of innovative solutions to implement their ideas through investment and the in-house material and technical base of Nanocarbon Materials LLC. At the final stage of the competition, the jury evaluated the scientific value of the presented solutions, marketability of the developed products and technologies, possibility to conduct R&D operations and to commercialize the product. Following a review of the applications, the expert counsel selected three teams who were closest to fulfilling the contest conditions:

1. Development of catalysts for hydrogen-air fuel cells, Nadezhda Glebova, Ioffe Physical Technical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Laboratory on High Power Semiconductor Devices, St. Petersburg;
2. Project for acetylene hydrochlorination using NCM-based catalysts from OOO UNISIT, Moscow;
3. Application technology of carbon adsorbents modified by nanodispersed silicon dioxide for the creation of modern analytical systems, Federal State-Funded Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education “Samara State Aerospace University named after S.P. Korolev” (National Research University), research team of the chemistry department, Samara.

GS Venture corporate venture fund experts intend to continue the search for developers of solutions for commercial technologies of NCM application.

“Carbon nanotubes and nano-additives represent a promising innovative niche, where the development is very important for science and industry”, said Anton Alexishin, a GS Venture expert. “We will continue to consider projects for the practical application of NCM and invest in them provided that the developers have a business plan or an in-depth R&D plan”.

Development and production of NCM, as well as of the in-house application technologies is one of the major activities of the GS Group holding company. Active evolution of this area started back in 2013, when Nanocarbon Materials LLC became an independent enterprise within Technopolis GS.