Q&A with Dr. Baratunde Cola, Founder and CEO of Carbice
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Carbice Corporation was founded by Dr. Baratunde Cola in 2011, and is based on more than a decade of his research in nanomaterials. The core technology, Carbice Carbon, is a composite of recycled aluminum and aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) that dissipates heat away from product packaging, thereby lowering device temperatures, extending product life cycles, and enhancing safety, performance, and reliability.
We welcomed Carbice to the Toyota Ventures portfolio in the fall of 2020, and we recently sat down with Bara to discuss Carbice’s CNT technology, insights from scaling the business, future applications of Carbice Carbon, and what’s next for the company.
Tell us about your journey prior to founding Carbice.
After finishing my bachelor’s and master’s degree in mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt, while also playing on the football team, I completed my Ph.D. at Purdue with funding from NASA and Intel. My Intel Fellowship gave me the opportunity to intern there in the summer, and I learned a lot about practical challenges in thermal packaging of chips. Our group at Purdue pioneered the use of vertically aligned CNT arrays for thermal management, so I also got to provide consulting to several early nanotechnology startup companies.
After Purdue, I went to Georgia Tech to become a professor and built an award-winning research group and program focused on thermal and energy applications of aligned CNTs. We gained world-wide recognition for our work and laid a solid foundation to spin out Carbice.
How do carbon nanotubes in Carbice Carbon technology work to dissipate heat in electronic devices?
CNTs are nature’s perfect conductor of heat. Carbon atoms are the lightest and carbon-carbon bonds are the strongest, and these two features combine fundamentally to make heat flow through solids with little resistance. The real challenge is placing these CNTs in a form factor that can take advantage of this in practical applications. At Carbice, we figured out a way to align vertically billions of CNTs per square centimeter into a “forest” that takes the heat out of a hot electronics device in the most efficient path to the heat sink. In this path, you also have to get the very tiny CNT to touch the heat source and heat sink intimately, and we have several ways to do this in our products, overcoming another big challenge that had existed for using CNTs in industry. Ultimately, the more efficiently heat is extracted from the device, the harder and longer it can work correctly.
What makes Carbice Carbon so unique in comparison to other thermal management solutions?
Carbice is the only solid pad that flows like a liquid and reforms like a spring — and can be adhesively placed in manufacturing without the adhesive lowering performance. You can also re-work and reuse our material, which would be out of the question with other options, because it is extremely robust in nearly all environments. Translated, we make the solution with the best combination of performance, reliability, ease of manufacturing, and low total cost of ownership.
Why do you think nanotechnology has the potential to be disruptive?
I think, with what Carbice and others have already demonstrated, nanotechnology is disruptive — we are past the point of speculation. Imagine the impact to a company making electronics of building new products twice as fast at 25% lower cost? This is a reality today, and one example of what Carbice is doing. Fundamentally, nanotechnology is about new material chemistry and structure, and as such, when the right markets are found it changes the way people do things forever. Wins are very sticky, and, to me, that is the definition of disruptive!
Was there a single moment when you realized the potential of nanotechnology and that it could be the foundation of a product and a business? Or was it a growing realization over a longer period of time?
I realized as an undergrad at Vanderbilt that nanotechnology had potential, but I had no clear vision of where it would go then. It really took several years of diving deeper and deeper into the field to create some clarity. However, we are talking about very hard science here. So, it first takes a long time to identify the real barriers to practical implementation. Once these are identified, it then takes longer to solve them; usually one by one. When I solved the final technical challenge that enabled Carbice, that was really the moment where I knew that what we had could be a viable product and business. This was only about a decade after I first saw the potential!
You are a professor, as well as an entrepreneur and a CEO. How have you managed that transition?
Very carefully! I am not the type of person that gets emotionally tied to any job, so that helps. I am more tied to my goals and both positions have been critical to advancing them. It is really just a matter of what is needed at a particular time and managing the timing of the transition to the next thing that is needed. No matter what role I am in, I am a teacher, learner, and discoverer at heart.
You founded Carbice first as an intellectual property holding company, and then later transitioned to commercial development within the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) at the Georgia Institute of Technology. After spinning out of Georgia Tech, Carbice is now a venture-backed startup that raised $15M in its Series A financing round. Can you share some insight on Carbice’s evolution and why you took this path?
I took the path that was available to me. My insight is for people to really understand that for themselves and the type of business they are building. There is a lot of extra risk early on with a materials company because science has to be turned into a technology, then product, so it only made sense to start with more research and IP discovery. It always makes it easier to scale when you take out risk so our process absolutely helped us get to where we are today.
How critical was the startup ecosystem in Georgia in growing Carbice? What are your thoughts about Atlanta’s ability to nurture top tech startups and talent?
Anyone that wants to be successful in Atlanta can be. The city has the talent and dynamics to support deep tech to fintech and more. Georgia Tech plays a key role in this from all angles. We have been able to pull top talent from Silicon Valley to relocate to Atlanta and join Carbice. To summarize my thoughts, move to Atlanta!
Diversity in tech and in the startup world is incredibly important. Do you have any advice for other founders on building a diverse team?
Dive deeper than trends, buzz words, and statistics. Search harder for excellence by confronting your limitations in understanding other cultures and life circumstances, and lean in to learning more. View learning not as generating an opinion, perspective, or decision, but as a process that builds empathy, acceptance, and understanding of unique value and fit. Build many relationships with people that are different from you. Encourage your team to feel comfortable expressing their authentic self. Manage to strengths, not weaknesses, and view your celebrations of team through the lens of excellence.
Can you share what’s next for Carbice? What new verticals do you see Carbice expanding into next?
We are expanding into everything that generates heat and needs to dissipate it to function properly. Stay tuned!
Visit the Toyota Ventures site to learn more about Carbice and the rest of our portfolio.
