PragmatIC Printing, a leading flexible electronics company, has completed a £5.4million funding round led by Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC) with support from ARM Holdings and existing shareholders.
Scott White, chief executive officer, said: " We have become accustomed to silicon chips being incorporated into high value documents such as passports and credit cards , but there are limitations to how robustly and cost-effectively this can be done. Our technology platform creates a microcircuit that can be easily embedded in any flexible surface."
PragmatIC, headquartered in Cambridge and with a production facility based at the National Centre for Printable Electronics in Sedgefield, will use the funding to hire more staff and to scale up its production capacity to 100million flexible circuits. The funding will also allow PragmatIC to broaden its circuit design activities, to include applications such as sensors, processors and wireless communications.
Victor Christou, senior investment director of CIC, said: "PragmatIC's flexible electronics offers the most compelling and cost effective product I've seen in the 20 years I've been involved in this industry. The company has already demonstrated a scalable and cost effective manufacturing process. With CIC's support, the company can now meet the pent up demand from customers for higher volume commercial production."
"ARM is committed to identifying innovative and disruptive new technology platforms," said Mike Muller, ARM's chief technology officer. "We are supporting PragmatIC as it has the potential to dramatically extend the range of form factors and economics of embedded intelligence."
White added: " We are hugely excited by both the additional resources and the strategic contribution that will result from this investment by CIC and ARM. We look forward to further developing our technology platform and blue chip customer base through the course of 2015."
Author
Graham Pitcher
Source: www.newelectronics.co.uk