RALEIGH, North Carolina – August 4, 2014 – The founders of Rieke Metals, Inc. (RMI) and Blue Diamond Capital are proud to announce the formation of Rieke Metals, LLC
On July 1, 2014 Blue Diamond Capital acquired the assets of RMI. Based out of Lincoln, Nebraska, RMI manufacturers high-purity specialty chemicals under its patented process. RMI’s products are sold to the electronic and pharmaceutical industries, in addition to research and development applications. Since its inception, RMI has established an outstanding reputation for innovation, purity and service for its global customer base and strategic partners.
Blue Diamond Capital’s interest in RMI is based on its dedication to its diverse global customer base; the untapped potential to scale up production of its patented organometallic; and polymer chemistries and Dr. Reuben Rieke’s deep expertise in highly reactive metal chemistry. John Hollenbach, Managing Partner for Blue Diamond Capital said, “We saw an opportunity to expand beyond the core Research and Development customer base. By scaling up these chemistries for commercial applications and leveraging Dr. Rieke’s fundamental expertise in organometallic, semiconducting polymer and fine organic chemistry, we can expand our commercial enterprise with a growing pipeline of new products and customers.” In addition to expanding the company’s manufacturing capacity, Blue Diamond Capital will explore add-on acquisition opportunities.
For over two decades RMI has independently provided novel organozinc and Grignard reagents, fine organic chemicals and organic semiconducting polymers based on highly reactive metal chemistry. Dr. Reuben Rieke is the pioneer of highly reactive zinc chemistry and an innovator in the organic chemistry community. As Dr. Rieke states, “Recently, we’ve seen increasing demand from customers for commercial quantities of Rieke Metals’ chemistry, so we decided the time was right to seek outside investment to meet this demand.” John Hollenbach from Blue Diamond Capital adds, “Our intention is to help Rieke Metals become the leading innovator and commercial partner for organometallic and semiconducting polymer chemistry in the world.”
Going forward, Blue Diamond Capital will be actively engaged to commercialize Rieke Metal’s manufacturing capability and to allow Dr. Rieke to focus his attention on developing new and patentable chemistries and products in the highly reactive metals and semiconducting polymer space. Together with the management team, they will build the company’s strategic growth plan and build out its manufacturing capacity.