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BASF, Ciba Specialty Chemicals, and Solvay say they have each separately invested in venture capital firm Pangaea Ventures (Vancouver). The $50 million fund, Pangaea Ventures Fund II, invests in companies with innovations in advanced materials, energy and environmental technologies, and nanotechnology.

2006/8/31 BASF

BASF Venture Capital invests in North American investment fund Pangaea Ventures Fund II

BASF Venture Capital GmbH, Ludwigshafen, is investing in Pangaea Ventures Fund II, LP, a venture capital fund belonging to Pangaea Ventures Ltd of Vancouver, Canada. Pangaea Ventures invests in early-stage advanced materials, energy and environmental technologies as well as nanotechnology companies in North America.

This was the first close of Pangaea Ventures’ proposed US$50 million fund. BASF Venture Capital is one of the lead investors together with Solvay and Ciba Specialty Chemicals. Follow-on closings are expected shortly.

“Pangaea offers BASF Venture Capital new areas and segments for its North American investment activities,” said Josef Wunsch, Technical Managing Director of BASF Venture Capital. “We are impressed with Pangaea Ventures’ deal flow and its understanding of advanced materials.”

Wunsch added that Pangaea’s corporate focus complements the strategy of BASF Venture Capital to invest in companies, which fit into one of the growth clusters of BASF Group: energy management, raw material change, nanotechnology, plant biotechnology and white biotechnology.

“Advanced materials are having a significant impact on markets such as photovoltaics, water purification and organic electronics and we see some very exciting companies in these and other markets,” said Chris Erickson, Principal of Pangaea Ventures.

Pangaea Ventures Ltd　　http://www.pangaeaventures.com/

The partners have built successful companies and bring together deep domain knowledge, a broad range of applicable experience and effective leadership. This includes a wide array of technical, operational, high tech start-up, financial, legal and transaction expertise.

Partners
　 Chris Erickson, Purnesh Seegopaul, Calvin Yee
　 　
Investment Focus
　 Pangaea believes that innovation in advanced materials technology, nanotechnology, energy technology and environmental technology will dramatically impact the way people live and businesses operate over the next decade. These areas are often interrelated and are evolving at a rapid pace, spurred on by government, industry, academia and support from the financial community.

Advanced materials cover a broad range of innovative, high performance products that generate high margins, with minimal competition. They have strategic applications in many large industries. Examples include nanomaterials, clean energy and environmental materials, catalysts, coatings, polymers, compound semiconductor materials and electronic materials that are being generated from advanced process technologies.

Nanotechnology refers to the control of matter at the nanometer scale to create novel functional materials, electronics, tools, assemblies and biotech products. One reason nanotechnology is so important is that the move to the nanometer level results in significant changes in physical, chemical and biological properties. In many cases the materials, electronics, tools, assemblies and biotech products are smaller, faster, cheaper, more powerful and longer lasting than previously thought possible.

Energy technology refers to technologies that help make altnerative and conventional forms of energy more efficient and less costly. Pangaea believes that rapidly growing global demands for energy have created the need for fundamental changes in how energy is created and delivered to consumers. Clean technologies include photovoltaic (solar), batteries, fuel cells, wind, microturbines and light emitting diodes (LEDs). Advanced materials play a critical role in these technologies.
　 　
Portfolio
　 Cyrium has developed breakthrough technology that will significantly increase photovoltaic solar cell efficiency.
Nanox produces high surface area nano-perovskite catalysts for the automobile industry
InMat has developed nanocomposite coatings with extremely low gas permeability