Nanotechnology Venture Capital Investment

Nanotechnology is not a single market but rather a set of enabling (and potentially groundbreaking) technologies that can be applied to solve high-value problems in almost every industry. This includes industries as disparate as telecommunications, biotechnology, microelectronics, textiles, and energy. Many investors refer to nanotechnology investing as if it were its own investment category, because nanotechnology can add unique and specific value to a product that results in greatly enhanced performance attributes or cost advantages (or both). But customers purchasing nanotechnology products are buying these products, not because they are based on nanotechnology, but because they are characterized by specific performance enhancements, reduced costs, or both.

Almost every product application of nanotechnology is based either on a material characterized by nanoscale dimensions or on a process technology conducted at the nanometer scale. Nanomaterials possess unique propertiesincluding optical, electronic, magnetic, physical, and chemical reactivity propertiesthat, when harnessed appropriately, can lead to entirely new, high-performance technologies and products. Changing a material's size, rather than its chemical composition, enables the control of that material's fundamental properties.