Troy
Just months from launching its first commercial product, Evident Thermoelectrics of Troy has acquired a Boston-area energy company called GMZ Energy of Waltham, Mass.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Evident, which operates on the Russell Sage College campus, purchased all of GMZ's assets, including its patents, equipment, product lines, customer contacts and brand.
GMZ was in the news lately for having reportedly shut down after years of promise that included $20 million in investment from venture capital firms such as Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers of Silicon Valley. The firm, which had ties to both MIT and Boston College, originally was focused on solar technology and then shifted to thermoelectronics, which is technology that turns heat into electricity.
Although it went through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization several years ago, Evident has rebounded and also shifted from LED and quantum dot technologies to thermoelectric devices. It has raised millions of dollars in new capital in the last couple of years and has 15 employees. It says it is months away from its first commercial product based on technology that it licensed from NASA.
"GMZ Energy has been very successful at developing nanomaterial-based thermoelectric modules, and making them commercially available," Evident CEO Clinton Ballinger said. "This acquisition is a key element in our investment core strategy to accelerate our product development, as it broadens our market segments and allows us to offer even more products that perform at higher temperatures, meeting customer demand."
GMZ's equipment will be moved to Troy as part of the purchase. Evident plans to also hire some of its former employees, including Giri Joshi, research director at GMZ.
"I am excited to work with Evident as we continue the work we started at GMZ," Joshi said.
NASA uses thermoelectric devices that convert heat from plutonium to the electricity that powers the Voyager and Mars Curiosity space vehicles. Evident has said its technology could be used to replace alternators in cars using heat from a vehicle's engine.
lrulison@timesunion.com • 518-454-5504 • @larryrulison
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