Brontes Technologies, Inc. was a startup company that produced a digital dental impression system brought to market by 3M as The Lava Chairside Oral Scanner C.O.S. The Lava C.O.S. provides a powerful connection and improved productivity for a doctor and their dental lab thereby enabling the needed input to mass customized lab production in the dental market.

Brontes Technologies, Inc. was born out of the research of Janos Rohaly, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

 professor Douglas Hart

Douglas Hart

Douglas Hart is a British musician and music video director.-Biography:Hart was the first bassist and founding member of the Scottish band The Jesus and Mary Chain, and played with the group from 1984 to 1991...

, and two graduate students from the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering. After three years of research, the inventing team received a grant from Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at MIT to shift the focus of its work toward commercial opportunities.

In Autumn 2002, the inventing team recruited co-founders Eric Paley as CEO and Micah Rosenbloom as COO, both Harvard Business School students, to evaluate the commercial potential of the technology, develop a business plan and raise capital. In May 2003, the combined team was selected as the runner-up in the MIT 50K

MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition

The is one of the largest and most famous business plan competitions in the world. Entirely student-managed, students from all programs and levels at MIT organize and enter the $100K. Teams must include at least 1 full-time MIT student, but membership is not restricted to the MIT community...

 and Harvard Business School

Harvard Business School

Harvard Business School is the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States and is widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the world. The school offers the world's largest full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, and many executive...

 Business Plan Competitions. Brontes Technologies was incorporated in June 2003 and identified the dental market as its business focus on the summer of 2003. The company was funded in 2004 by David Frankel

David Frankel (entrepreneur)

David Frankel is a founder and Managing Partner of the Founder Collective, a seed-stage venture capital fund headquartered in New York City and Cambridge that accounts among its partners Eric Paley and Chris Dixon .Mr...

, Flybridge Capital, Charles River Ventures

Charles River Ventures

Charles River Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on early-stage investments in technology and new media companies.The firm, which is based in Waltham, Massachusetts and Menlo Park, California, was founded in 1970 to commercialise research that came out of MIT...

, and Bain Capital Ventures

Bain Capital Ventures

Bain Capital Ventures is the Boston-based venture capital affiliate of Bain Capital. Bain Capital Ventures' history dates back to 1984, with investments in over 110 early and growth stage companies such as Staples, DoubleClick, Aspect Development, Shopping.com, Taleo Corporation, SolarWinds,...

. Brontes Technologies innovated 3D-In-Motion technology which allowed the dentist to scan the inside of the mouth by moving an instrument above the teeth and capturing accurate high resolution data in real-time. In October 2006, Brontes Technologies was acquired by 3M Company for $95 million and the product was launched to the dental market in 2007.