Orlando-based Kismet Technologies completed a $5 million seed round with contributions from strategic investors, family offices and the Florida Opportunity Fund, it announced Aug. 1. The same day, the company said it also got $1 million through a National Science Foundation grant.
Most of the funds will be used to bring to market a product called NanoRAD — a disinfectant used in coatings and films to provide nonstop virus and bacteria protection for weeks to months at a time. Part of that effort will be working to ensure approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
NanoRAD's status as a first-of-its-kind product may account for the round receiving investment offers exceeding the $5 million the company sought, which is known as being oversubscribed.
“The fact the round was oversubscribed speaks to the market opportunity for our nanotechnology, a game-changing residual antimicrobial effective against the hardest-to-kill pathogens," said co-founder and President Shari Costantini In a prepared statement.
In addition, after two years of effort to qualify, Kismet learned in July that it was the recipient of a Phase II Small Business Technology Transfer grant from the National Science Foundation.
The foundation awards fewer than 10 Phase II grants per year. Kismet is the second Florida company in 10 years to receive the grant. Stereology Resource Center was awarded $736,172 in 2019.
“This was a very competitive process to go through, but is a clear indication the technology is innovative and impactful and needs to get to market," said Kismet Technologies co-founder and CEO Christina Drake.
In May, Kismet — an Orlando Inno 2023 Fire Awards winner — opened its 10,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in the Lee Vista area of Central Florida, where the firm makes its main nanoparticles in a process that involves using deionized water to synthesize them, Costantini said. Kismet allows the nanoparticles to sit in a heating jacket for a few weeks to get the robust microbiome required to achieve its infection-control potential.
Kismet Technologies
- Top executive: Christina Drake, CEO
- Year founded: 2019
- Capital raised since founding: $3.5 million
- Central Florida employees: 12
- Employees company wide: 13
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