Liquiavista Raises Second Round

Liquiavista BV, a Dutch fabless display manufacturing company, has raised EUR 8 million in Series B funding. The round includes both equity and debt. Return backers include Amadeus Capital, GIMV and New Venture Partners.

PRESS RELEASE 

Liquavista BV, the fabless display manufacturing company based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, with offices in the UK and Hong Kong, has announced the completion of an EUR 8 million Series B fund raising, comprising equity and debt. Existing investors Amadeus Capital Partners, GIMV and New Venture Partners LLC all participated in the round.

“Responding to the strong demand of our lead customers, Liquavista is on track to achieve volume production of displays in 2008,” said Mark Gostick, Liquavista’s CEO. He added “Thanks to the continued support of our investors, we now have everything we need to achieve the first commercial introduction of ColorMatch�-based products this year and to maintain our rapid progress in the development of active-matrix displays.”

Liquavista’s electrowetting displays provide world-beating brightness at low power and offer the potential for clear viewing in all lighting conditions, from a dimly lit office environment to the bright light of a sunny day.  Applications range from watches, mobile phones and digital cameras to notebook computers.

Hermann Hauser, Amadeus Director and Liquavista board member commented: “Liquavista’s electrowetting technology provides a light shutter that is fundamentally more efficient than LCD and ultimately simpler and less costly to make.  There really is no limit to its potential to transform the displays industry.”

Elderd Land, of GIMV’s ICT team, and board member says: “I am very excited to see Liquavista progress towards market introduction so rapidly.  It is rare to see a technology that delivers so much added value to users whilst causing so little disruption to the established manufacturing infrastructure.”

Rob Rosenberg, Liquavista board member and Partner at New Venture Partners commented, “The technology is tailor-made for mobile multimedia devices, where users really care about long battery life and daylight viewability. We know that people will use premium services on mobile devices much more if they are not concerned about running the battery down, so providers of software, services and networks will also win.”

The ColorMatch FreeStyle platform combines more than twice the brightness of LCD displays with an amazing range of color combinations. This gives designers unparalleled ability to translate their product vision without compromise. The color, size and shape of the active segments/pixels can all be chosen to blend seamlessly with the overall product concept enabling differentiation and value for the whole product to flow from the display. 

Liquavista’s manufacturing process is largely based on standard LCD fabrication processes, this is enabling the company to achieve a very rapid path to volume production. The company is currently installing its first production capacity with an LCD partner in China to complement its process development facility in Eindhoven.

About Liquavista BV – www.liquavista.com.
Liquavista was founded in 2006 by a team which originates from the world famous Philip Research Labs in Eindhoven. The company is now backed by Philips, New Venture Partners, GIMV and Amadeus Capital.