Copyright © 2013, The Oklahoma Publishing Company
i2E Inc. has closed a $450,000 investment in Stillwater-based Associated Material Processing LLC through its StartOK Accelerator Fund.
The i2E investment led a $1.1 million financing round that also included the i2E-managed SeedStep Angels, Cowboy Technologies and other angel investors.
Associated Material Processing has exclusively licensed technology from Oklahoma State University to a patent-pending material that removes arsenic from industrial and manufacturing waste streams and drinking water. Associated Material will use the proceeds to boost sales and marketing, to acquire initial inventory and to enhance pilot plant equipment.
“We consider this investment round to be critical in moving our arsenic removal technology from a chemistry laboratory at OSU into the real commercial world,” Associated Material CEO David Waits said. “We now have an opportunity to positively impact many people’s lives including creating new jobs in Stillwater.”
The company’s initial market is the silicon chip manufacturing industry, which uses a process that results in large amounts of arsenic as a waste byproduct.
The StartOK Accelerator Fund is one of three Accelerate Oklahoma! investment vehicles created in 2011 by i2E through a partnership with the Oklahoma Commerce Department and the U.S. Treasury State Small Business Credit Initiative.
The StartOK Fund targets companies that are in the startup stage that have not yet completed a product launch.
The SeedStep Angels were founded by i2E in 2009 and is now the state’s largest angel investment group with 27 members and chapters in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Ardmore. Investments by SeedStep Angels members now total more than $2 million since the group was founded.
