CANTON – Fusion Coolant Systems, a University of Michigan spin off, has raised an $8 million Series C financing round led by Boston-based Material Impact and Michigan Capital Advisors, two venture capital firms. The money will be used to grow the company’s staff, operations, equipment and personnel.
The round was also strongly supported by existing investors including MINTS- Michigan Investment in New Technology Startups, Amherst Fund and Invest Michigan.
Fusion Coolant Systems has commercialized a patented disruptive technology that uses supercritical CO2 as a cutting fluid to reduce the costs of manufacturing in large sectors such as medical, aerospace, and automotive.
“Fusion has developed an elegant technology to address the ubiquitous need for cooling whenever metal or hard polymers are machined,” said Adam Sharawy, co-founder and managing parter, Material Impact.
“This transformative technology has the potential to enable higher productivity, create safer working conditions for machining workers, and improve the environment by minimizing the disposal of liquid coolants … all making a material impact to manufacturing machining operations.”
Founder Steven Skerlos, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Mechanical Engineering at U-M, said his team has broken into some of the world’s industry leading manufacturers, proving that the technology improves the profitability of material removal operations while eliminating health and environmental hazards.
“The addition of new investment firms, Material Impact and Michigan Capital Advisors, with their wealth of experience and profound domain expertise, is confirmation of the company’s progress during the last several years and a testament to its current business strategy and future prospects,” said Rafael Castilla, U-M director of investments.
