MITO Material Solutions

First Graphene has completed its previously announced acquisitions of US-based MITO Material Solutions and Australian materials businesses Ionic Industries and Imagine Intelligent Materials, and has separately expanded its longstanding distribution partnership with Bisley across Australia and New Zealand.

With the MITO acquisition now complete, First Graphene has received its first purchase orders from Parlor Skis and Le Croix fishing rods, customers previously supplied under the MITO brand. Former MITO chief executive Haley Marie Keith has joined First Graphene as vice president of business development, leading efforts to build product awareness and pursue commercial opportunities across the United States. The company has also submitted an application to the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to supply graphene products for defense-related aerospace composite projects, and points to Keith's appointment as a foothold in the US defense industry, which it values at more than US$1.18 trillion. Having established its own US commercial channels through the MITO acquisition, First Graphene has discontinued its previous distribution arrangement with NeoGraf.

First Graphene (ASX: FGR) has announced an agreement to acquire the assets, intellectual property, product lines and manufacturing capabilities of US-based MITO Material Solutions for up to $850,000, in a move aimed at strengthening its presence in North America and expanding its graphene offering.

MITO is an advanced materials company with established graphene-based products and manufacturing operations in the United States, meaning the transaction enhances both First Graphene’s commercial footprint and its technical capabilities. The acquisition will extend First Graphene’s portfolio beyond its PureGRAPH powders and dispersions into functionalized graphene and graphene oxide products. MITO’s offerings include E-GO, LIGRA, OMEGA and DELTA, which are used across thermosets, thermoplastics, composites, coatings, resins and liquid systems. The deal also adds capabilities in functionalizing graphite, graphene and graphene oxide, along with access to manufacturing equipment, licenses and know-how.

MITO Material Solutions has teamed up with Vartega, developer of recycled carbon-fiber composites, on a new composite material project. The two companies incorporated MITO’s graphene-based materials into carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastics. Vartega incorporated MITO’s liquefied graphene into their Fenix fiber EasyFeed bundle products – now offered as Fenix Fiber+, which supplies excellent performance with recycled materials.

Because carbon fiber manufacturing is an energy intensive process, waste diversion is a big factor in improving its sustainability. Carbon fiber is typically made from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor fiber that has been stretched and heated at high temperatures to first oxidize and then carbonize the material. These high temperatures coupled with PAN fibers traditionally coming from fossil fuels, means that carbon fiber has a considerable carbon footprint. By diverting waste carbon fibers from landfill, Vartega resets the material’s embodied energy to zero. Vartega’s recycled carbon fiber is 95% less energy intensive than virgin carbon fiber.

Specialty chemical company, MITO Material Solutions, raised $4.6 million dollars in a funding round that closed in late January. Funding came from a seed extension by existing and new MITO investors such as specialty chemicals solutions provider, Ingevity Corporation, and will be used to expand MITO’s Indianapolis operations, including new lab space for developing industry leading products and new composite material technologies.

MITO’s portfolio of advanced polymer additives includes a proprietary graphene-functionalization technique that creates E-GO, a hybrid polymer modifier currently in production and reportedly in use in several industries. MITO states that its additives enhance fiber-reinforced composites and thermoplastics beyond standard performance metrics and are engineered to integrate into existing production lines at an extremely low concentration with proven compatibility in a variety of material combinations.

MITO Material Solutions, a developer of performance-enhancing additives for polymers, has announced an oversubscribed $1 Million Series Seed funding round led by two Chicago-based firms, Dipalo Ventures and Clean Energy Trust.

This investment follows MITO Materials receipt of more than $1.1 million in R&D grants from the National Science Foundation and participation in the Heritage Group Hardtech Accelerator powered by Techstars in late 2019. Additional Series Seed investors who participated in this round include Charlottesville, Virginia-based, CavAngels; Indiana-based HG Ventures, Elevate Ventures, and VisionTech Angels; and Oklahoma-based, Cortado Ventures.

MITO Material Solutions, a U.S-based nano-additive solutions provider, recently received $1.1 million for product development funding from the National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research grant program (SBIR) and the State of Oklahoma through the Oklahoma Center for Advanced Science and Technology (OCAST) program.

MITO aims to use these funds to continue with their push to manufacture hybrid nanoadditives that enable composite manufacturers to create lighter, tougher, and more durable products for the automotive, wind energy, aerospace, and transportation industries. MITO's CEO, Haley Marie Keith, was kind enough to chat with us and answer our questions.

MITO Material Solutions has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant of $224,988 to develop a graphene oxide-based nano-additive that doubles the interlaminar toughness of composite materials utilized in aerospace, recreation, and automotive industries.

The main focus of this project is the development of new hybrid nanofillers based on Graphene Oxide (GO) and Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane (POSS). These nanofillers can be added to epoxy/vinyl ester/polyester matrices through a "Master Batch" process to enhance the interlaminar fracture toughness of commercial composites.