Carbon Nanotubes by Matt Brown 1984

In a recent MIT Technology Review article, it was announced that Nano Terra (a startup based in Cambridge, MA, founded in 2005 by George Whitesides and his former Harvard chemistry fellow Carmichael Roberts) licensed the rights to more than 50 patents from Harvard University in one of the largest nanotechnology patent deals to date.

“The wide-ranging set of patents–the result of research done in the Harvard chemistry lab of George Whitesides–covers everything from techniques for designing materials that assemble themselves into microscopic lenses and data storage devices, to tools for patterning complex nanoscale circuits over large, irregularly shaped surfaces.”

Until now, there has been much speculation about the potential of nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology is not new and estimates of the value of products containing nanotechnology range as high as $1.1T by 2012 (NSF). However, Venture Capitalists and early-stage companies have been shy to invest in this industry as investment timelines far exceed those of traditional deals. In 2004, $8.6B was spent in the U.S. on nanotechnology R&D (~50% from corporations, ~50% from government), according to Lux Research. Contrast that with the mere ~$400M invested by Venture Capitalists in the industry in the same time period. VC investment grew more than 50% by 2006, to $650M, but that’s still relatively small compared to large corporate and government research. The gap is a sign of the long timeline for commercializable value from these research investments.

Could Nano Terra’s investment be an indication of a changing horizon for nanotech commercialization potential?

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