Cambridge Innovation Capital plc (CIC), a Cambridge-based investor in technology and healthcare companies, announces that it has invested further funds in PragmatIC Printing Ltd, a world leader in flexible electronics, as part of an £18 million funding round. Avery Dennison, a Fortune 500 company with leading global positions in labelling and packaging as well as radio frequency identification (RFID), and ARM also participated in the round.
This investment in PragmatIC is expected to accelerate the mass deployment of intelligent packaging, with Avery Dennison leveraging the potential of PragmatIC’s flexible integrated circuits (flexICs) in its inlays portfolio.
“This funding allows PragmatIC to deliver into the market a tool for producing flexible integrated circuits at an unprecedentedly low unit price point,” said Victor Christou, CEO of Cambridge Innovation Capital. “We believe this is an important step forward to commercially affordable smart packaging.”
“Avery Dennison works with more than 10,000 converters, brand owners and retailers worldwide, making them an ideal supply chain partner to deliver solutions based on our unique technology,” said Scott White, CEO of PragmatIC.
“We’re excited about this collaboration with PragmatIC, which presents a promising opportunity to build on our high volume RFID inlay manufacturing capabilities,” added Francisco Melo, Vice President and General Manager, Global RFID, Avery Dennison. “With PragmatIC’s technology, there is the potential to extend the use of unique item-level digital identities to improve consumer experiences in a number of new segments, such as fast-moving consumer goods.”
The funding round supports PragmatIC’s development and commercialisation of its FlexLogIC “fab-in-a-box” equipment. This modular system facilitates fully automated, high throughput production of flexICs, and is designed to fit naturally into the supply chain for a wide variety of intelligent packaging solutions.
“We appreciate the confidence in our business reflected by this investment from Avery Dennison, as well as continued strong backing from CIC and ARM,” concluded Scott White. “The funding provides full support for our next stage of evolution, moving from pilot scale production to enable volume manufacturing with the FlexLogIC equipment.”
Image: Scott White (PragmatIC CEO) and Victor Christou (CIC CEO)
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