DFJ VTB Capital Aurora invests in a memory developer

American company Avalanche Technology (AT) that develops new types of memory has attracted $30M investment. DFJ VTB Capital Aurora venture capital fund is among other investors; its assets are managed by VTB Capital Company. Avalanche Technology will direct received funds to the further development and launch the production of a new class of storage devices.

The share of DFJ VTB Capital Aurora in the company, as well as its appraisal, was not disclosed. We only know that the head of the venture capital business VTB Capital Aydar Kaliev joined the Board of Directors of AT. Previously, Avalanche Technology attracted investment from Sequoia Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Vulcan Capital, Thomvest Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures - a total of $11.5M.



The SPMEM technology (spin programmable memory), which is developed by Avalanche Technology, is the recently discovered giant magneto resistance effect and the effect of spin transfer. Among the main advantages of memory based on SPMEM are energy independence, high energy efficiency, a large number of rewriting cycles, and the possibility of lithographic process miniaturization up to 10 nm.

Experts concede that the development of Avalanche Technology will be the basis for a new generation of universal built-in data carriers and autonomous devices.
AT team has extensive experience and expertise, they have a prototype and entered into agreements with customers - the managing director of RUSNANO Dmitry Pimkin says. According to him, there are enough companies that develop chips, but most of them do not move further the prototype stage, and then cannot find investment to work further on it and start production. Dmitry Pimkin also noted that RUSNANO considered the possibility of entering this asset and it is still of company’s interest.

Nanotechnology and Innovation Fund DFJ VTB Capital Aurora Innovation & Nanotechnology was established in 2012 by VTB Capital, RUSNANO and Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) which is one of the largest venture capital companies in the world.