The White House is crowing today about betting on winners when it doled out more than $100 million in federal research grants in recent years.

One of those success stories held up for admiration is a tiny Raleigh startup called Phononic. The company netted $12 million in private investment February after scoring $3 million from the U.S. Department of Energy two years ago.

The White House announced the Phononic private financing along with four other companies and academic programs as a validation of federal research funding in energy innovation.