Dubai fund invests in US technology firm

dubai - Investment Corporation of Dubai owns assets worth $209.5 billion

Sovereign wealth fund Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD) and Founders Fund have invested Dh110 million ($30 million) in the US-based technology firm Nanotronics.

"This investment reaffirms ICD's strategic commitment towards technology innovation and marks the beginning of a long-term partnership with Nanotronics which we believe is playing an important role in shaping the future of advanced manufacturing and inspection across global industries," said Khalifa Al Daboos, deputy chief executive of ICD.

ICD will be joining other existing Nanotronics investors: Jaan Tallinn, co-founder of Skype and Kazaa, Howard Morgan, co-founder of First Round Capital and Renaissance Technologies, and media and technology mogul Kevin Wall.

According to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute, ICD assets were worth $209.5 billion (Dh769 billion). ICD's portfolio includes more than 40 company investments across diverse sectors with a global footprint spanning more than 50 countries.

An Inc. 5,000 company founded in 2010, Nanotronics customers include Broadcom, ST Micro, IQE, II-VI, Soraa, Applied Optoelectronics, and many others.

Following the completion of this current financing, Nanotronics will have raised a total of $71 million, which will accelerate the development of the company's optical inspection technologies and proprietary industrial enterprise software, as well as expansion into key regions of the Asian market in 2018.

"Consumers have access to better algorithms in their smartphones than you will find inside most of the factories that make what we consume. That gap is an opportunity. Nanotronics is seizing it," said Peter Thiel, Founders Fund partner and board director of Facebook, Palantir and Nanotronics.

- waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com