Cooling Photonics achieves 630,000 euros to revolutionize cooling systems

Nanotechnology and photonics applied to reducing the temperature of any material. This is the objective of Cooling Photonics, a Barcelona-based startup that has just closed a first financing round worth 630,000 euros, which will allow it to finance its growth and make known the product they have developed, a film that prevents or reduces the overheating of any material.

"We have developed a solution that allows cooling any surface sustainably, without energy consumption or pollution, simply by maximizing the natural capacity of the material to shed excess heat and reduce its temperature," explains Javier Achiaga, CEO of Cooling Photonics. According to the entrepreneur, the thermal dissipation tape they have created allows reducing the energy consumption of any device and improving its efficiency. Furthermore, it is optimal for increasing the efficiency of photovoltaic panels, as it allows them to absorb more light.

This financing round of 630,000 euros values the emerging company at 3 million euros and has been led by the business angels network of Esade Alumni, Esade BAN, and by the women business angels association WA4STEAM, which invests in startups with women in the founding core, seeking to expand female presence in companies in the STEAM sector.

Cooling Photonics has also been a beneficiary of the Startup Capital aid granted by Acció, the agency for business competitiveness of the Generalitat, aimed at boosting the growth of technological and deeptech startups in their initial phase.

Cooling Photonics was born in 2020, as a spin-off of the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) and has also had the support of The Collider, the innovation program of Mobile World Capital Barcelona, which accelerated its growth. The company is based in Barcelona, on the La Salle Technova campus, and currently has a staff of 8 people.

With the funds obtained, the startup plans to increase this team to accelerate the introduction of its technology into the market, and specifically, to begin commercializing the thermal dissipation tape they have created, as well as to finalize the development of the coating intended to improve photovoltaic panels.

Cooling with the laws of physics, without consuming electricity

According to Cooling Photonics, there are now 3.6 billion air conditioning units in the world, a figure that is expected to increase to 14 billion units by 2050. Thus, they explain, 17% of electricity consumption is allocated to cooling systems, which cause 8% of CO₂ emissions, magnitudes that are expected to multiply by 3 in the coming years. Given this reality, Cooling Photonics has developed a new cooling system that does not pollute and does not consume electricity, since it is based on taking advantage of the laws of physics thanks to advances in nanotechnology.

In this sense, Cooling Photonics has created a coating based on so-called radiative cooling, a new natural material that, applied to an object, allows maximizing its radiative cooling capabilities. For example, if we place it on an object that is 50 degrees above ambient temperature, it will lower its temperature by 20 degrees, without consuming energy, without polluting, without making noise, without occupying space, and in a free and unlimited way.

According to the CEO of Cooling Photonics, their technology "has great application potential in sectors as diverse as thermal regulation, energy generation, electronics, electrical charging, or the aerospace industry," among others.