Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Helixis' Founders Other Startup: Rockoco

On the heels of the successful exit of Carlsbad-based Helixis this week, it turns out the founders of the firm--Caltech professor Axel Scherer and Caltech Ph.D. George Maltezos, are also behind Rockoco, which said this week it had raised $1.5M in funding from the Pasadena Angels and other investors. Rockoco is applying semiconductor processing technology to create more brilliance and fire in diamonds, in essence "super" polishing the stones. The firm's nano-cutting techniques have been vetted by the diamond industry's Gemological Institute of America (GIA), and apply standard semiconductor equipment to diamonds. Apparently, both firms were developed in Professor Scherer's lab at Caltech, according to Rockoco's CEO, Paul Gloger. Helixis was acquired yesterday by Illumina for $105M.

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