The startup Cooling Photonics has closed its first round of capital funding, having raised a total of €630,000. We spoke with founder and CEO Javier Achiaga (MBA ‘04) about how the project started and what plans the company has in store.
Cooling Photonics is a startup that develops sustainable cooling technologies based on nanotechnology and photonics that prevent or reduce the overheating of any material, thereby preventing excess heat from causing efficiency loss, increased consumption or breakdowns of devices. The company is a spin-off of the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2). It was accelerated in The Collider and funded by ACCIÓ’s Startup Capital, where it obtained the highest score of its edition of the programme.
Now, Cooling Photonics has closed its first round of capital funding, having raised a total of €630,000. Investors from Esade Alumni’s business angel network, Esade BAN, contributed €568,000 to this round, which generated overfunding. Esade alumnus Jordi Cano was the lead investor of the syndicated group. The company’s valuation now stands at €3 million.
Thanks to these new funds, Cooling Photonics is expanding its team to accelerate the process of bringing its heat-dissipation tape to market and finalise the development of a coating that will increase the efficiency of photovoltaic panels.
- What sets Cooling Photonics apart from other companies?
Cooling Photonics’ sustainable cooling technology provides solutions that reduce energy consumption and create zero pollution, simply by maximising the material’s natural capacity to release excess heat and reduce its temperature. The technology consists of a coating that enhances the cooling capabilities of the material to which it is applied. It is a green technology that provides a passive cooling solution, without energy consumption or pollution. It therefore has great potential for application in a wide range of sectors, including thermal regulation, energy generation, electronics, electrical charging and the aerospace industry.
- What does Esade BAN mean to you and how has it helped you with the project?
We came to Esade BAN thanks to the first Barcelona Deep Tech Seed Investment Forum in 2021, back when deep tech investment almost unheard of in Barcelona. At Esade BAN, we met Fernando Zallo and his team, who helped us from the get-go and got Esade BAN to lead our investment round. The advantage of Esade BAN is the diversity and stature of its members, which makes it easier to match projects to investors and brings much more value to investment rounds than the amount of money would suggest. In our case, Jordi Cano, as lead investor of Esade BAN, has become involved in the company’s board. His experience has proved very helpful to us in our day-to-day work.
- What are the company’s medium-term plans?
We already have production capacity. We are now introducing our technology in the temperature regulation market – in power electronics and motors. In the medium term, we want to scale our capabilities to grow in the photovoltaic market, increasing the efficiency of these panels by more than 6%.
- What are the biggest challenges you have faced so far?
All of our challenges have been quite daunting. Bringing to market a technology developed by researchers in a lab poses a challenge in terms of the state-of-the-art technology and the available resources. Despite all the hurdles we have encountered along the way, so far we have been able to meet all the goals we have set for ourselves, thanks to teamwork and certainly some luck. Among the biggest challenges we have seen thus far – which now, fortunately, are just fond memories – were the start of continuous R2R production and the first customer pilots.
