Oxford University spinout firm Bodle Technologies has closed a £6m Series A.
The company, which is aiming to change how and where consumers interact with displays is developing reflective technology for applications that include wearables, IoT displays and eReaders.
According to the firm, its technology’s pixels reflect light, drastically claiming to reduce the power required to project an image and thus eliminating it altogether when it comes to static imagery.
The technology was invented by Professor Harish Bhaskaran and postdoctoral researcher Dr Peiman Hosseini at Oxford University’s Department of Materials.
Since inception, Bodle Technologies has hired Silicon Valley veteran Mike Clary – who boasts three decades worth of experience in bringing new technologies to market – as the CEO.
Bodle’s latest round was led by Parkwalk Advisors. The startup also drew support from new backer Woodford Patient Capital Trust, as well as existing shareholders Oxford Sciences Innovation and the Oxford Technology and Innovations EIS Fund (OTIF).
Clary commented: “Electronic displays continue to be outnumbered by the vast number of static, non-digital displays around us – in the form of permanently printed text and graphics.
“Our technology offers the chance to seamlessly integrate displays onto the surfaces and objects around us. It enables a natural display of vivid colours, which is unconstrained by hard-wired mains power or excessive battery drain, which even acts in no-energy mode when required.”
The money from the latest round will be used to scale the business and advance through to the prototype stage.
Moray Wright, CEO at Parkwalk Advisors, added: “In an increasingly connected world driven by the acquisition and processing of data, there will be more and more sharing of information via electronic display. Not just through our smartphones, but wherever we demand human interaction and intervention.
“It may be through simple displays on personal wearable and IoT devices, or increasingly by seamlessly integrating displays onto the surfaces and objects around us. SRD offers the chance for us to ‘display anywhere’.”
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