Russia’s RVC Seed Fund partnered with a private investor to support iGeo, a Russian company that is developing and planning to manufacture high-tech sensors for seismic tomography, RVC, Russia’s fund of funds for innovation. The private partner was R-Sensor, a domestic maker of high-accuracy seismic equipment with a solid international presence.

The sensors iGeo is developing are designed to help look for oil during active seismic tomography. To develop the new sensors the company is using planar molecular electronics, which is expected to give them a competitive edge over other sensors. Advantages include high sensitivity, a wide dynamic and frequency range, and no spurious resonances.

“In this first investment round, we’re planning to make an inaugural batch of sensitivity cells for the sensor,” iGeo CEO Sergei Kurkov said.

The RVC Seed Fund expects the project to break even by the end of this year, and launch sales by mid-2017. “We are predicting a fairly profitable exit from the project three years from now,” Seed Fund CEO Alexei Teleshev thinks.