Six year old start-up Plastic Logic aims to go head-to-head with
major consumer electronics firms such as Philips by starting the
manufacture of flexible active matrix displays for e-book products
early next year.
The company, which spun out of Cavendish Laboratories in 2000,
has secured equity funding of $100m to help fund the building of a
production facility in Dresden.
According to Simon Jones Plastic Logic’s v-p of product
development, it will be the first factory to manufacture plastic
electronics on a commercial scale.
“This represents the first serious money for the
commercialisation of plastic electronics which we believe will have
a major impact on consumer electronics,” Jones told
EW.
The facility will produce flexible active-matrix display modules
based on the firm’s proprietary plastic transistor technology which
replaces silicon transistors in traditiional active matrix
LCDs.
The result said Jones is a “paper-like display which is thin,
light and robust and closer to paper than any other
technology”.
To fund this comprehensive commercialization program, Plastic
Logic has completed a first closing of $100m of equity finance led
by Oak Investment Partners and Tudor Investment Corporation.
Hermann Hauser, director of existing investor Amadeus commented:
“Having backed Plastic Logic from day one, I am delighted that the
first full commercialisation of plastic electronics is now firmly
in our sights. With this investment we are not only scaling up a
great company - we are also creating a new electronics industry
that will become a significant addition to silicon.”
Existing investors Amadeus, which led the seed financing of Plastic
Logic, Intel Capital, Bank of America, BASF Venture Capital, Quest
for Growth and Merifin Capital also participated.
“This investment is a perfect fit with Oak’s vision of future
media interaction through handheld devices,” said Rob Broggi, v-p
and director of technology, media and telecoms equity research at
Tudor.
“It meets our objective to find and participate in the most
exciting investment opportunities globally, particularly in mobile
and nanotechnology sectors,” said Broggi.
The facility will produce display modules for portable
electronic reader devices – a product category that is predicted to
grow to 41.6 million units in 2010. It will have an initial
capacity of more than a million display modules per year and
production will start in 2008.