Pangaea Blog

Catalysts are advanced materials that enable chemical transformations. It is estimated that more than 60% of chemical products and 90% of chemical processes are made possible by catalysis. The catalyst market size exceeds $25 billion and involves large industries supplying products and services critical to everyday living. Enzymes, which are nature’s catalysts, drive the biochemical processes in living organisms and anchor industrial biocatalysis. Catalysis is now expected to play a crucial role in transformational technologies designed to usher in a better and cleaner world. This is key area of interest for Pangaea Ventures and our portfolio companies are already leveraging unique catalytic processes to engineer and manufacture novel advanced materials.

Samsung Electronics unveiled its new Galaxy S4 in New York last week to great fan fare and high expectations. One key feature of the new phone is its near-field communication (NFC) capabilities.

NFC-enabled smartphones allow the user to interact with products at a local and retail level. The user can now use his or her phone to get product level intelligence simply by tapping the phone on a product. The phone can redeem coupons by tapping a coupon tag at the front of a store and then enable the customer to purchase the item via secure payment systems.

Carbon is the stuff of life! A vital element in nature, it is also one of the most abundant elements and present in every life form. Indeed, we, humans, have been classified as "carbon units" by V'Ger in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. It is a sort of friendly element, easily reacting with other elements, resulting in a library of millions of compounds. While carbon has been used since prehistoric times, it took thousands of years to discover the various forms or allotropes known to us today. Carbon's ubiquitous nature also gives rise to the so-called carbon cycle, a biogeochemical process involving the cycling of carbon atoms between earth and its atmosphere. Recognition as an element came in the eighteenth century and a carbon isotope forms the basis of the carbon dating (Nobel Prize in 1960) technology so critical to archeology.

Nanotechnology has always been around but got a big boost with Richard Feynman’s lecture titled “There’s plenty of room at the bottom” in 1959. The introduction of the scanning tunneling microscope in 1981 and bucky balls (60 carbon atoms) in 1985 further ramped up the interest level. Then came the ambitious predictions and amazing forecasts. Everyone, including me, wanted to get some action. The rush generated lots of activities in terms of startup companies and investments and naturally, there was the inevitable disappointment. These days, the decibel level is lower but make no mistake, nanotechnology is now integrated into conventional technologies and making a difference. Both startups and large corporations are introducing nano-enabled products in the marketplace across industries that include energy, chemicals, environmental, electronics/semiconductor, personal care, textiles, agriculture, transportation, biomedical/biotechnology, and packaging. Already, over 800 everyday products (Nano.gov) rely on nanoscale materials and processes and this will surely continue to expand.

Entrepreneurs often like to promote their solutions as "drop-in replacements" for existing technologies. This makes a lot of sense. No established company wants to hear about a different way of doing something that incurs significant switching costs or other associated manufacturing hardships even if the novel solution, material, or product provides additional compelling cost and/or performance benefit(s). In my experience, these claims of drop-in replacements usually have to be taken with a serious grain of salt.