Kyma Technologies, Inc., a leading developer of advanced materials technologies, is pleased to announce it has entered into a strategic partnership agreement with GOLeafe Inc., a startup company which has developed a proprietary patent-pending process for manufacturing nanocrystalline graphene and graphene oxide materials.

Pictured is Kyma CEO Keith Evans (left) and GOLeafe CEO Arsheen Allam (right) during the agreement signing ceremony on November 16, 2017 at Kyma’s headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.

Their agreement calls for Kyma to lead GOLeafe’s product sales and marketing activities and for the companies to team on select materials and application development opportunities. 

There are a growing number of applications which benefit or potentially benefit from nanocrystalline graphene and graphene oxide materials including touch-screen displays, Li-ion battery technology, rust-free coatings, composites, supercapacitors, printed electronics, conductive inks, and sensors. Yet the growth of the market for these materials has been hampered by a number of manufacturing challenges including high manufacturing equipment costs and use of harsh chemicals that present health and environmental risks. 

GOLeafe's manufacturing approach is based on a scalable batch process which avoids expensive equipment and harsh chemicals, which means GOLeafe’s manufacturing approach has a cost advantage and is much more eco-friendly than competing approaches. 

Kyma president & CEO Keith Evans remarked, “We are excited to partner with GOLeafe to help bring their innovative graphene materials to market – a market that to date has been held hostage to more costly and less eco-friendly manufacturing approaches."

GOLeafe co-founder and CEO Arsheen Allam added, "As a small startup with big plans, it has been a pleasure to grow our relationship with Kyma over the past three years. This agreement represents an important milestone for GOLeafe and we look forward to working closely with Kyma to engage with customers and begin GOLeafe’s transition to the commercialization stage.”

Kyma and GOLeafe were first introduced to each other in late 2014 by Howie Rhee, the Managing Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business where Ms. Allam is pursuing her MBA and for which Dr. Evans has served as an Affiliate Entrepreneur since 2008.

Mr. Rhee commented, “I introduced Keith and Arsheen because I felt there was a very good possibility that Kyma could help GOLeafe in the area of intellectual property protection. Clearly their conversation has expanded from there. I am very pleased to learn of this strategic partnership agreement and I am excited about what Kyma and GOLeafe will achieve together.”

The Market for Graphene

According to Zion Market Research’s recent report entitled Graphene Market (Mono-Layer & Bi-Layer Graphene, Few-Layer Graphene, Graphene Oxide and Graphene Nano Platelets) for Composites, Energy Storage, Electronics and Other Applications: Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis, and Forecast, 2016 – 2022 the global graphene market was valued at USD 32.0 million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD 193.68 million in 2022, growing at a CAGR of 35.0% between 2017 and 2022. 

According to BCC Research’s 2016 report entitled GRAPHENE: TECHNOLOGIES, APPLICATIONS AND MARKETS, the global market for graphene-based products is expected to reach $2.1B by 2025.

About Kyma Technologies, Inc.

Kyma’s mission is to provide advanced materials solutions that promote energy efficiency. Kyma’s products include a diverse portfolio of advanced crystalline materials (including GaN, AlN, AlGaN, Ga2O3, and MoS2), crystal growth tools for fabricating such materials, and GaN-based photoconductive semiconductor switch (PCSS) devices. Kyma's growing service offering includes specialty parts manufacturing, device processing, materials characterization, wafer fabrication, and federal contract consulting services.

For more information about Kyma, visit www.kymatech.com, send an email to info@kymatech.com, or call the company directly at +1 919.789.8880.

About GOLeafe Inc.

GOLeafe is a Research Triangle based startup which has developed a proprietary patent-pending eco-friendly cost-effective method to produce nanoscale graphene oxide (GO) and related graphene materials. GOLeafe is teamed with two other companies on applications including solar energy and water desalination.

For more information about GOLeafe, send an email to info@GOLeafe.com.