Jan. 27, 2005 — ApNano Materials Inc., a New York provider of nanotechnology-based products, announced it raised $5 million in its second round of financing from European private investors.

The company says it is negotiating an additional investment of $1 million, which will complete the second round of financing at $6 million, at a post-money valuation of $22 million. An April 2002 first round of funding raised $3 million from Newton Technology VC Fund.

The money will be used to construct a pilot manufacturing plant, which will produce 150kg a day of ApNano’s first product, according to a company release. The product, NanoLub, is a nanotechnology-based solid lubricant which the company says significantly improves the performance of moving parts.

Founded in 2002, ApNano Materials is working to commercialize nanospheres and nanotubes of inorganic compounds that were discovered at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. Menachem Genut, president, CEO and company co-founder, was a co-discoverer of the inorganic nanostructures as a member of the Institute’s Nanomaterials Synthesis Group headed by Professor Reshef Tenne.

The company also announced that it has appointed Stefan Csillag of the University of Stockholm, Sweden, as the new investors’ representative on its board of directors.