Nanotech gets $3.9M for its butterfly-inspired counterfeit technology

Nanotech Security, an anti-counterfeit technology company, raised $3.9 million for its “nano-optics” that are modeled after butterfly wings.

Nanotech’s nano-optics are intended to be used to protect sensitive items such as bank notes and passports all the way to purses and often-counterfeited products. The product is called “KolourOptiks” and is printed onto virtually any surface through a special technique that creates “smaller than light structures” to produce vivid colors. This means plastic, paper, fabric, and metal surfaces can all receive the embedded technology.

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The company envisions brands putting their marketing into these KolourOptiks to help consumers detect when a product is real or faked. It will also make it very difficult for criminals to be able to forge financial documents and money launder.

The funding, however, is being held until Nanotech is able to complete “two patent-entity acquisitions.” The private companies being bought hold patents on nanotechnology that Nanotech says will give them much more “IP breadth” and security within the industry.

Nanotech says it will use the funding to continue developing the product and getting it out into the market. The company is based in Vancouver and was founded in 1984. Investors were not disclosed.