Russian startup Optogard Nanotech has secured 110 million rubles (some $1.8 million at the current exchange rate) in equity financing from Garant, a Russian group investing in industrial projects, as reported by Skolkovo Foundation.
Optogard Nanotech has developed a laser-plasma technology for strengthening the surfaces of metals and alloys, such as the inside of pipes. The Optogard technology makes them ultra-hard and resistant to blockages and the buildup of impurities.
The agreement with Garant aims to assemble from scratch a multifunctional laser-plasma operations line, its industrial test launch and later move to the Nizhny Novgorod region. The project is being carried out on the premises of the Institute of Laser Physics of the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Optogard Nanotech is already training specialists there who will later use the technology at industrial production lines and is looking for premises for the latter.
Launched in 2011, Optogard Nanotech is a resident company of Skolkovo, the international tech hub under completion on the outskirts of Moscow.
The company has also signed agreements with the Chinese company Shandong Trustpipe Industry to set up production in the Chinese city of Linyi.
