UK startup’s flexible ICs lure big investors

18 March 2015 News

PragmatIC Printing, a flexible electronics innovator in the UK, has completed a £5,4 million funding round, led by Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), with support from ARM Holdings and existing shareholders, to scale up its operations. The basis for these investors’ confidence in the startup company is a technology platform for creating a microcircuit thinner than a human hair that can be easily embedded in any flexible surface.

Scott White, chief executive officer at PragmatIC, explains how the company is positioning itself: “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.”

By contrast, the applications for PragmatIC’s devices, which are cost-effective enough to be incorporated into disposable items, are vast; ranging from intelligent packaging of fast-moving consumer goods, to wireless traceability of documents for security and identification.

It will use the new funding to hire more staff and to boost its production capacity to 100 million flexible ICs. Circuit design activities will also be broadened into applications such as sensors, processors and wireless communications – the essential building blocks to enable the emerging Internet of Things.

Explaining his enthusiasm for the work PragmatIC is doing, CIC’s senior investment director, Victor Christou, said: “PragmatIC’s flexible electronics offer 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.”

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