BASF Venture Capital leads $3M investment in SLIPS for super-omniphobic technology; joint development agreement

29 October 2014

BASF Venture Capital has led a $3-million Series A financing with a $1.5 million investment in SLIPS Technologies Inc. based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Swiss entrepreneur and private investor Hansjörg Wyss has also participated in the financing. SLIPS Technologies develops customized, highly-repellent slippery surfaces for customers in all industries including energy, packaging, consumer, automotive and environmental.

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SLIPS (Slippery Liquid-Infused Porous Surfaces) is a set of technologies that transform the surface of a solid material into a microscopically thin and ultra-smooth (friction-free) immobilized “sea” of lubricant. The result is a robust and self-healing super-slippery surface that is highly repellent to virtually any environmental challenge such as crude oil, cement, water, ice, biofouling, chemicals, paints, oils, and insects.

The company’s technology platform was created by Prof. Joanna Aizenberg and her team at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Alongside the investment, BASF has signed a joint development agreement with SLIPS Technologies to develop SLIPS-coated thermoplastics with primary focus on thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs). TPUs are used in a variety of applications such as sports and leisure footwear, industrial cables as well as specialty films.

SLIPS Technologies will use the proceeds from the financing to advance various commercial applications of its slippery surfaces through internal development as well as in partnerships with its customers in industry and government.

Resources

• Tak-Sing Wong, Sung Hoon Kang, Sindy K. Y. Tang, Elizabeth J. Smythe, Benjamin D. Hatton, Alison Grinthal Joanna Aizenberg (2011) “Bioinspired self-repairing slippery surfaces with pressure-stable omniphobicity,” Nature 477, 443–447 doi: 10.1038/nature10447