Graphene Energy Inc., an Austin-Based Startup, Raises Seed Capital to Commercialize Graphene-Based Ultracapacitor Technology

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Graphene Energy Inc., an Austin based startup, today announced that it has successfully raised US$0.5 million seed investment from Quercus Trust and 21Ventures. It has also concluded licensing terms for Graphene-based Ultracapacitor Technology from The University of Texas at Austin and The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. The company is now in the process of qualifying Graphene based Ultracapacitor electrodes, Graphene production processes, and performance for a variety of associated components.

“Demand for energy storage is growing tremendously and the Graphene-based Ultracapacitor technology is ready to make its contribution. It is also an excellent fit in our portfolio of CleanTech companies.”

“Graphene has superior electrical conductivity and surface area and these attributes suggest it could work exceptionally well in electrochemical double layer capacitance applications, also referred to as ‘supercapacitor’ or ‘ultracapacitor’ technology. The structure of Graphene is fundamentally different than activated carbon, which is typically used in supercapacitors now. Our goals include obtaining significantly improved specific capacitance in Farads/gram, and improved energy density,” said Prof. Rod Ruoff, a Cockrell Family Regents Chair in the Mechanical Engineering Department at The University of Texas at Austin.

“We are very excited to have this opportunity to commercialize the Graphene-based Ultracapacitor technology to address the ever growing needs for energy storage, in particular, in applications with the need for high power densities,” said Dr. Dileep Agnihotri, CEO of Graphene Energy Inc., “and I am very happy to have Quercus Trust and 21Ventures as investment partners. They have been very supportive of early stage, disruptive and clean technologies.”

“Graphene Energy Inc., with an exciting technology for addressing energy storage needs, particularly for high power density requirements and enabling new applications of energy storage, is an exciting addition to our portfolio,” said David Anthony, managing partner for 21Ventures. “Demand for energy storage is growing tremendously and the Graphene-based Ultracapacitor technology is ready to make its contribution. It is also an excellent fit in our portfolio of CleanTech companies.”

Graphene Energy Inc. is a Delaware registered corporation, established in Dec. 2008 and is located in Austin. For more information on Graphene Energy and the advantages of its Ultracapacitor technology, please visit www.grapheneenergy.net.

About the Quercus Trust

The Quercus Trust of Newport Beach, California is recognized as one of the leading CleanTech venture funds in North America with strategic investments in the clean technology areas of solar, water, bio-fuels, wind and batteries. The Quercus Trust is known to provide more value than just funding and takes a long-term view of invested capital leveraging its industry expertise and relationships for the benefit of its portfolio companies.

About 21Ventures

21Ventures, LLC is a venture capital fund focusing on the technologies and ideas that will dominate the 21st century. Its fields of expertise include clean technologies, mobile software and security. 21Ventures invests primarily in early-seed companies possessing proprietary technologies poised to change the market landscape. For more information contact David Anthony, Managing Director of 21Ventures at 212-699-0842 or by e-mail at danthony@21ventures.net or visit www.21Ventures.net.