Wildcat Discovery Technologies, a five-year-old San Diego startup applying high-throughput screening technologies in cleantech materials development, has raised $7.5 million through a combination of equity, convertible debt, and securities, according to a recent regulatory filing. The total includes $685,000 in warrants convertible to preferred shares.
Wildcat’s work is focused on identifying and developing new materials for batteries, hydrogen storage, gas separation, carbon capture, and electronic inks, according to the company’s website. Wildcat’s venture investors are listed as CMEA, 5AM Ventures, and the Virgin Green Fund.
High-throughput screening is frequently used in the life sciences to identify new compounds for potential drug development. Wildcat says its high-throughput workflow enables it to synthesize and test 1,500 unique materials every week for potential use in batteries. By synthesizing materials in bulk, forming electrodes, and testing in fully functioning cells, Wildcat says it can explore a broader range of electrode materials, electrolytes, formulations, and additives.
Wildcat’s eight-member scientific advisory board includes Peter Schultz, the Scripps Family Chair Professor of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego and former Institute Director for the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation, and Don Murphy, the former director of applied materials research at Bell Laboratories. The chairman is Henry Weinberg, chief technology officer at Draths Corp., a chemical company developing commodity and specialty chemicals from biorenewable feedstocks.
