Updated with comments from NanoICE CEO Craig Rominger.

NanoICE, which developed a technology to quickly chill foods, has raised nearly $2 million of a $3 million equity round, according to an SEC filing.

The Bothell company invented the Molecular Ice Technology, which uses ice particles dispensed in liquid form to chill foods. The company says the technology can chill material up to 20 times faster than other methods, without damaging the product.

"It's a different type of ice product than people have seen historically," said CEO Craig Rominger.

NanoICE said its technology has multiple applications and uses 70 percent less energy and 90 percent less refrigerant than other chilling methods.

The startup raised $500,000 in 2010. It was also a winner of the 2010 Zino Zillionaire Investment Forum.

Update:

Rominger said the startup will use the funding to get installations and service partnerships going, as well as grow the company's headcount. NanoICE currently employs 12 people throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan.

Fresh off a three-month trial run of its machines with a Pike Street Market fish vendor, Rominger said NanoICE is specifically looking to hire a few seafood industry veterans.

"We're obsessively focused on the seafood industry because we feel we have the lowest barriers to entry," he said.

The company plans to expand into poultry next year and, eventually, pork and beef.

Rominger said the NanoICE has outsourced the manufacturing and service of the machines used to store the ice and food product to keep overhead low while building the sales and distribution side of the business. When questioned about the patent-pending technology, Rominger said the company is being intentionally vague about what it's working on.

"We’re vague because we’re working on some things that could radically change food preservation," he said. "And we don't want to talk about those until we can do what we say we can do."