Harris & Harris Group announces purchase of 5.1% interest in Nanophase Technologies

Business Wire, Nov 1, 1994

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 1, 1994--Harris & Harris Group Inc. announced Tuesday that it had purchased 500,000 shares of Nanophase Technologies Corp.'s Series D Convertible Preferred Stock for $500,000.

The Series D Preferred Stock is convertible into 500,000 shares of common stock representing a 5.1% fully-diluted interest in Nanophase. The investment by Harris & Harris Group was part of a $2.35 million private placement through which Nanophase issued 2.35 million shares of Series D Convertible Preferred Stock largely to its original equity investors led by Arch Venture Partners.

Nanophase is a privately held company that has developed a unique process, based on technology licensed from Argonne National Laboratory, to synthesize crystals of nanometric dimensions. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter or 10,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. By controlling both particle size and the spacing between particles, Nanophase is able to produce materials with a rich variety of physical properties. Since its formation in 1989, Nanophase has raised over $5.7 million in equity capital and successfully developed a laboratory process into customer-driven production and sales of nanometric-sized crystals.

The proceeds of this financing will allow Nanophase to relocate from its office/laboratory space into a production facility capable of producing over 40 tons per year of nanometric-sized materials. Nanophase is currently producing trial quantities of nanometric-sized iron oxide and titanium dioxide for use in cosmetics as a transparent sunscreen. Other potential applications of the company's products include sensors for environmental pollutants and affordable net-shaped, ceramic components for applications in engine components, electronics and manufacturing. These applications are being jointly developed with partial funding by independent industrial collaborators and government funding.

Harris & Harris Group is a closed-end, non-diversified investment company with 9,136,747 common shares issued and outstanding.

CONTACT: Harris & Harris Group Inc., New York

Robert B. Schulz, 212/332-3614