El Paso-based venture capital firm makes first investment in Rio Grande Valley

By Steve Taylor
Rio Grande Guardian

EDINBURG, Sept. 18 - 

Cottonwood Technology Fund, a venture capital firm based in El Paso, has made its first investment in the Rio Grande Valley, pumping an undisclosed sum of money into FibeRio Technology Corporation.

Beto Pallares, Cottonwood’s managing partner, said his firm’s aim is to cultivate the entrepreneurial community along the border region. As such, he said, Cottonwood, which also has offices in Los Alamos and Santa Fe, hopes to make other seed-stage investments in Valley-based technology companies.

“I live on the border. I understand the dynamics that are faced here. I understand the challenges and the preconceived notions but I also understand where the value is. We do not object to hopping on a plane and coming down here. I make frequent visits for that reason,” Pallares said.

Pallares said it was not a difficult decision to partner with FibeRio. At a news conference at the University of Texas-Pan American last Wednesday, Pallares said FibeRio is comprised of good people with a good idea. He said those were two of the three components needed for success. The third, he said, is money.

FibeRio is UTPA’s first regional technology start-up company. It was formed after Karen Lozano and Kamalaksha Sarkar, faculty members of UTPA’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, co-invented an advanced nanofiber manufacturing process that could, experts believe, revolutionize the nanofiber manufacturing industry.

Lozano, chief technology officer for FibeRio, explained what a nanofiber is. “A nanofiber is like a strand of hair, only a strand of hair has 80 microns and a nanofiber is 80,000 times thinner. It is microscopic; you cannot see it with your own eye. A nanofiber is so small that most of the atoms are on the surface. That makes them very active. They have properties you do not find in other systems,” Lozano said.

Lozano said nanofibers are used in ...

Click here to read more