USA – Checkerspot, Inc., a Berkeley, CA and Salt Lake CIty-based materials innovation company, closed its Series B financing of $36m.
The round was led by Viking Global Investors, with participation from other existing investors including Builders VC and Breakout Ventures. Wilbur Ellis’s Cavallo Ventures, a new strategic investor in Checkerspot, also participated. Including the Series B, Checkerspot has raised more than $50m.The funds will be directed towards commercial development and the expansion of the company’s product and innovation platform.Led by Charles Dimmler, CEO, and Scott Franklin, Chief Scientific Officer, Checkerspot designs performance materials at a molecular level. It does this by optimizing microbes to biomanufacture unique structural oils produced in nature, but not previously accessible at commercial scale. The company is currently commercializing three materials: a light-weight urethane-based composite (Algal Core) and a cast urethane (Algal Wall), both commercialized initially through the brand WNDR® Alpine, as well as algal oil formulated into MiDori® BioWick and sold in partnership with Beyond Surface Technologies to clothing brands worldwide. Checkerspot enables product designers and innovators, including Beyond Surface Technologies, Gore and WNDR Alpine, to use innovative materials to develop improved consumer and B2B applications for a post-petroleum future.20/08/2020
