Funded Advanced Tech
Coatue developed technology for semiconductor memories based on organic materials. They found technology in several academic settings for organic materials with multi-stable electrical properties that would enable fast, persistent, and low-cost multi-bit per gate memories; licensed the technology; and built a company in Woburn, Mass, bringing over several of the inventors from Russia.
The original team was Andrew Perlman (CEO), Avi Goldberg (CFO), and Aaron Mandell (CTO), who were then on the second leg of their career as serial entrepreneurs. Subsequently they have been founders of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals (acquired by GLAXO) and Great Point Energy (private).
Coatue quickly attracted the attention of the memory division of AMD (now Spansion), and they entered into a joint development agreement, which resulted in AMD acquiring Coatue in 2003, two years after it was founded. Our fund received a 2.5x return on its investment with a two year holding period.